Ruby and Emerald
by Ataramos
Summary: A story examining the dynamics between Rikku and Paine, loosely following the events of X2 with new events added in. Eventual shoujoai, RikkuPaine. Updated 3.31.08 twice in one month, omg
1. Fear never felt

**Disclaimer: I don't own FinalFantasyX-2, I'm just using the characters for my own uses. **

**Summary: A look at Rikku and Paine, and the evolving dynamic's between the two, taking a few creative liberties with the storyline but generally following the story. **

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Rikku sulked as she was pushed out the door and onto the deck of the Celsius, listening to the door hiss closed behind her. Sighing and stretching her arms up above her head, she settled her hands behind her neck and wandered towards the gull perched upon the front of the red Al-bhed airship. Leaning over the metal tail of the bird, she draped herself upon the ornament and let her arms dangle at the sides as she watched the ocean move along in front of the ship, far below. Yuna had kicked her out of the cabin after she had asked the former summoner if there was anything she wanted to do, apparently once to many times. It wasn't Rikku's fault that she was bored out of her mind, it was Brother's fault for not finding anything interesting to do, no spheres to search for since the last one, the so called 'awesome' sphere that got them into hot water with New Yevon, since they had decided to give it to the Youth League. It had been two weeks since they had gone and invaded the LeBlanc Syndicate, traveled to Bevelle and discovered that whatever that 'Vegnagun' thing was wasn't there anymore, and fought what Rikku called 'Dark Bahamut', which obviously upset Yuna. Heeding Baralai and Nooj's warnings to 'not get involved', they spent the last two weeks doing just that, though Rikku wondered how long -that- would last, and after the week and a half point, Rikku had started to snap. Yuna seemed fine with just sitting and doing things like reading, completely avoiding talking about fighting the Aeon, and Paine seemed to have an amazing knack for avoiding the young thief and securing herself somewhere the Al-bhed couldn't find her. Rikku suspected that Paine had set up in the tool closet of the engine room, or just in the engine room itself, somewhere Rikku didn't much like to go. It was too loud, and Buddy was so paranoid about keeping the engine in working order himself that whenever Rikku and her tinkering habits got too close to it, he just seemed to sense it and show up to yell at her. She was good with machina, no one doubted that, but she had the tendency to fuss and tweak with something to the point where it would, occasionally, not work, and Buddy didn't want that to happen to his 'baby'. Rikku thought that getting those things tinkered with working again was half the fun, and it was honestly rather rare that something she was doing stopped working, but it was often enough that the navigator didn't want to take the chance.

Rikku was much better with weaponry than brute working machines. A small part of her was always mildly uncomfortable with the fact that she could make a gun out of spare parts, but never seemed able to get a wagon to run as well as some others could, but she also supposed that was simply due to the circumstances she had found herself in in the past; working with her Father to defend Home, working with him and others to build machina to protect the summoners, becoming one of Yuna's guardians and having to constantly fight, as well as repair and improve her companions weaponry. It just came naturally. She smiled to herself, remembering the look on Lulu's face when she gave Yuna the pair of guns for her birthday instead of something more 'practical'. She cheerfully would point it out to the black mage that Yuna used the guns a whole lot more than she used the various cookware Lulu had gotten her. Lulu would just make some noise about thinking more for Yuna's future and giving her something to start a home with, but Rikku didn't think like that, having been on the move with her people since she was born, never staying in one Home for more than five years, though she would admit that having someplace steady to call your own was quite a wonderful thing, and loved each and every place the Al-bhed had settled in for a while. But, being able to defend yourself, that was important, and ever since Yuna had joined the Gullwings, she had plenty of times where she was looking down the barrels of her guns at some fiend.

The lithe thief slowly slid down from the metal ornament to plop down onto the surface of the deck itself, the metal warm under the shine of the sun, a welcome change from the cold air flowing past. Laying back and folding her hands behind her head, her vibrant green eyes trailed the clouds as they flew past, occasionally spying a bird and following its flight with a steady gaze. She furrowed her brow a little, wondering why Buddy was flying so low, more sphere waves could be picked up at higher altitudes, but she shrugged her shoulders and set the question out of her mind for later. Yuna wasn't going to unlock the deck door for at least two hours, so she wouldn't be able to ask him anyway. Sitting up and pouting a bit, she glanced at a watch and sighed upon realizing that only ten minutes had gone past since she was 'exiled' to the deck. It was going to be a long two hours.

* * *

"Yuna, where's Rikku?" Paine wandered up to the sleeping area of the cabin, glancing about before settling her eyes on the girl stretched out on one of the beds.

Yuna grinned. "On the deck. I locked her out there for a while so I could have some peace and quiet."

Paine smirked, a faint sound of amusement escaping her as she glanced upwards. "You locked her on the deck? Why didn't I ever think of that?"

Yuna rolled over onto her stomach, pulling her pillow over to prop herself up with below her chest, setting her book in front of herself. "I'm family, I'm allowed to do that to her now and then. I grew up with her visiting sometimes, and walked across Spira with her two years ago." The gunners dual-colored eyes shone with amusement. "I love her dearly, but sometimes I value the silence." She gave Paine a look. "And you hide yourself well enough that I get the most of her attention."

The amused look never left Paine's eyes. It was too subtle for most to spy, but Yuna had a knack for feeling others emotions, and she had been around Paine for a while now that she had begun to pick up the small things. "You can get earplugs and join me in the engine room. Buddy seems to have managed to set up some sort of anti-Rikku field down there, she hardly ever ventures down."

Yuna laughed softly and shook her head. "No thanks. I honestly don't mind it now and then, but I think not having walls around her will help Rikku a bit. Why were you looking for her anyway if you were hiding in the engine room?"

Paine gestured a bit as she walked over to her bed, picking up her sword from next to it, checking the blade. "I wanted to a bit of practice, and remembering that she was bored, I thought she might want to spar for a bit. Fast little thief, she keeps me on my toes."

Yuna nodded. "She and Tidus would do that, sometimes Khimari too, on the pilgrimage."

Satisfied with the sharpness of the blade, Paine hefted it up easily. "Care to join us then?"

"No, I think I'll stay here and relish the silence for a while yet."

"Suit yourself. See you in a bit." Paine nodded to Yuna as she slipped down the steps and out, ignoring Oaka as he asked if she wanted to buy anything. Why they had let the shopkeeper aboard the Celsius was beyond her, his prices were horrendous, but she supposed that the Al-bhed automatically helped each other out no matter what. Not a bad thing, she thought. Entering the elevator, she pressed the button for the deck and waited as the machine moved.

* * *

Rikku spun about, slashing at the air with her daggers as she moved across the deck in a quick and lethal dance. She struck out at invisible foes, her mind filling in various fiends that she would avoid or strike at known vulnerable places, using her knowledge of how they attacked to plan how she would fight them. Crouching for a moment in front of the door and facing the far end of the bow, she considered how much better it felt to be using daggers than to be using her earlier weapon from when she was on the pilgrimage. While the claw had its advantages, in her mind, daggers had more. Launching herself down the deck, she twisted and flipped as she fought with the chimera in her mind, not hearing the door to the deck open. Focused entirely on her motions, she didn't notice the dark clothed warrior leaning against the doorframe, watching.

Paine was a bit surprised to find Rikku practicing, she supposed the girl had gotten bored enough to settle upon an idea similar to the reason Paine had come to the deck in the first place. Setting the tip of her sword to the metal of the deck, she tilted her head slightly as she watched the lithe thief move, finding herself admiring more than just the ease of motion and confidence Rikku had with her weapons. She was never certain why Rikku wore the clothing she did, occasionally speculating it was because of the climate she was raised in, but with the amount of traveling to places that were occasionally quite cold, she thought the Al-bhed would have something more…substantial, to wear now and then. Not that Paine minded, she doubted anyone really did, Rikku had quite the appealing figure, and her clothing accented it quite well. The sunlight was especially nice to the warrior today, shining off of Rikku's hair as it flew about with her motions, highlighting the faint sheen of sweat that appeared on her body. Paine shook her head slightly, pushing those particular thoughts aside, uncomfortable that she had let herself drift towards them.

Paine cleared her throat, hiding a smile as she saw Rikku jump in surprise. She swung around, blinking in the bright light of setting sun. A smile soon shone brightly on Rikku's features, causing Paine to make a comparison between her and the sun, only Rikku's smile was a different kind of dazzling. Twirling her daggers before putting them back on her belt, Rikku walked towards Paine, wiping at her brow with the back of her arm, her head tilted a bit. "Paine! Did you come to free me?" She grinned as she came up even with the warrior.

Shaking her head and lifting her sword up, Paine tilted her head towards it. "I was wondering if you wanted to spar for a bit? You seem to have had a similar idea.'

Rikku nodded and flexed a little bit, stretching her arms. "Yeah, though it was really more like me being really bored up here. Though if you give me a few moments to recover, I'd be happy to for a little. It's been a while since we have, hasnt it?"

Paine moved out towards the center of the deck, swinging her sword about a bit as she warmed up while waiting for Rikku to cool down some. "We've been fighting a lot of fiends, I dont think the three of us have really needed that much practice. But after sitting around for as long as we have, it doesnt hurt."

Looking over her shoulder, she spied Rikku looking at her out of the corner of her eye, smiling. The young Al-bhed pulled her daggers from her belt again and moved over behind Paine. "Or did you really just want to watch me sweat?"

Paine arched an eyebrow, and for a few moments, Rikku almost wondered if Paine was blushing. She looked about to vocalize it, but was cut off by the abrupt attack from the dark warrior. Dancing off to the side, she avoided the swing of the massive sword, clanging one of her daggers off of it for fun. Twisting, she sliced upwards with the other dagger, meeting nothing but air as Paine turned away from the strike. She grunted faintly as the warrior elbowed her in the back, but instead of losing her footing like Paine attempted, she used the momentum to flip herself forward and around, swinging her arms up to block the downward strike of Paine's sword with her daggers. Not having nearly the same strength Paine has, she twisted out from below the sword, sweeping her leg out to try to knock the warriors feet out from below her. Paine jumped backwards, giving Rikku enough time to get back to her feet and twist about. She crouched there, twirling her daggers as she eyed Paine, the older girl doing likewise, swinging her sword back into place in front of herself.

The staredown lasted for only a few moments before Rikku dashed forward in a low crouching run. Stepping back and raising her sword, Paine blinked in surprise as Rikku suddenly turned her back to her, staying her swing, only to be having to fall back to avoid the tip of one of the red daggers as it sliced upwards, nicking the end of her chin. Occasional wounds during the sparing matches was acceptable, as long as they werent deep, and by the shine in Rikku's eye, she knew that the thief was proud of herself for being able to contact. Paine couldn't let that one go unanswered, and dropped down, kicking at the back of Rikku's legs, catching the girl off guard much like Rikku had her. With a yelp, she tumbled backwards, her daggers sliding away, and as the younger girl fell down atop her, Paine surprisingly lost her grip on her sword. Rikku turned and rolled away, grabbing her daggers and twisting to face Paine, who had gotten a hold of her sword and was standing again, wiping at the blood on her chin.

"Getting tired?" Paine asked, covering the fact that she was breathing heavily herself as best as she could.

Rikku's bandana was a darker shade of blue as she sweated herself, but seemed quite with it yet, shaking her head and grinning. "No, why, are you?"

The warrior was about to reply when the ship lurched, sending her down to one knee and Rikku to her hands and knees. "Tyshed! Fryd dra ramm?" _(Damnit! What the hell?)_

"I don't know. We seem to be gaining altitude." Paine stayed on her knee as the airship began to climb, as well as increasing its speed.

"Buddy! What are you doing?" Rikku yelled to the intercom, getting only static as a response. She started moving towards Paine, another lurch of the ship knocking her to her back. Much to her horror, she began to slide as the airship started going higher.

"Rikku!" Paine dropped into a slide, using her sword to give her a hold, ignoring the screech of metal as the deck protested her grinding her sword into its surface. The ship lurched again, sending Paine slamming into the alcove of the door.

Seeing Paine use her sword to try to slow her fall, Rikku attempted to dig her daggers into the deck, but the smaller blades were unable to penetrate the metal, all it did was give a teeth shattering shriek of protest. "Paine! Oh Spira!" The ship sharply angled upwards, and one of Rikku's greatest fears involving Brother's airship came true.

She fell from the deck. Everything had been going so fast, but suddenly, it all seemed to be in slow motion. Locking eyes with Paine, she realized it was almost more frightening to see the look of terror in the warriors eyes, the first clear show of emotion that she ever remembered seeing, then the horror of falling, fast, towards the ocean below. Still holding her daggers, she twisted in midair, knowing that slamming into the water on her back would be a bad idea, positioning her body into a dive position, hands and daggers poised to cut into the water first and make it sting just a little less. At least, she hoped.

* * *

Yuna blinked as the ship lurched, setting her book down. She felt it begin to angle upwards, and tilted her head curiously. Another jerk of the ship and she moved to stand, leaning over the railing and looking down to Barkeep looking as baffled as she, and trying to save his glasses from breaking. A piercing shriek of metal on metal caused Yuna to grimace and hold her hands up to her ears, a second shriek piercing the air after a third jerk of the ship, and she glanced towards the windows as the airship angled up again.

The next thing she saw made her blood go cold, not even seeing Sin for the first time gave her such a feeling inside. Rikku fell past the window, a look of complete terror on the girls face, the expression cementing itself in Yuna's mind. "No, Rikku!" She screamed, twisting around and leaping over the railing, falling hard to the tilted floor of the cabin, scrambling forward towards the emergency stairs at the side of the elevator. Ripping up the panel, she slipped in, grasping the handles at the sides of the ladder and sliding down, quickly getting to the control center of the ship. Slamming open the emergency door, she was greeted by chaos. Brother was laying at the foot of the stairs, Shinra crouched next to him. Buddy had managed to prop himself up against a railing, using a fire extinguisher on the main controls where Brother usually sat. Yuna blinked, moving forward towards Buddy.

"Buddy!" She stumbled a bit, grabbing the back of Shinra's chair to steady herself.

"Yuna! Get to my seat and get control of the ship!" Buddy shouted to her, not taking his eyes off the fire.

Yuna nodded and scrambled forward, dodging behind him and jumping up into his seat, grabbing the controls. Buddy had given her a few lessons on how to fly the ship, and she used what she knew to try to level the machine off. "What in Spira is going on!"

"I don't know, Brother's controls just exploded as he was getting into the seat and blew him back there, started a fire and sending the controls all psycho!" Buddy managed to get the flames out just as Yuna found the brake and leveled the ship off.

"We have to go back to where we were!" Yuna sounded hysterical, and Buddy noticed the tears streaming down the gunner's cheeks as he moved to his seat.

"What? Why? We have to take care of Brother and fix the ship." The navigator glanced over to where the Al-bhed lay against the stairs, Shinra tending to him.

Paine slammed through the doors, the raw, fierce emotion on the pale woman's face something none of them had ever seen before as she swung her sword out in front of her, looking ready to kill. Her crimson eyes quickly took in the state of the room, and her eyes leveled on Buddy. "Rikku. She fell from the deck."

If he werent wearing the goggles, people would have been able to see Buddy's eyes go wide. He gestured wildly to Yuna, the gunner slipping out of the seat and letting him sit down. "Right, lets see if the engines are still okay, we went about twenty miles." The airship shuddered, the engine undamaged but the controls still shaky as Buddy grimaced, fighting to turn the ship. Yuna moved back to Paine, the look in her eyes desperate, though she was clearly a little unnerved by the fierce expression on the warriors features.

"Paine, what happened? When the Celsius lurched like it did, I didnt know what was going on, then I...oh Spira, I saw her fall!" Yuna raised her fist to her mouth, biting down on her knuckle. Paine began to pace, walking forward to look at the burnt and now soggy seat where Brother had been, then looking back to the lanky Al-bhed laying on the floor. She shook her head slightly, then looked at Shinra.

"Shinra, this was an accident, right? Brother didn't do something stupid and have this happen?" Her voice was like cold venom, and the young boy shrank back a bit from where he was pouring a potion into Brother's mouth.

"I don't know. Brother said something about the controls acting funny since when we stopped in Kilika, and how they were really acting up today. He had opened the control panel to see why they were sticking so much, but he hadn't reached in before they exploded and blew him back. He wasn't even touching the steering or the throttle." Shinra quickly explained, for once not taking his usual 'Im just a kid' excuse. Paine seemed to accept this, espically when Buddy voiced his aggreement of the explination, and turned to face Yuna, her crimson eyes meeting Yuna's dual colored orbs.

"Lets get down to the engine room. Once Buddy gets us back to where we were, we take the raft out. You learned to swim, right?" She didn't pause to wait for an answer as she walked past Yuna, who was still on the verge of panic, but followed.

"Yes, Rikku taught me. I'm not as good as she is, she's the best of any other Al-bhed that was ever on a salvage crew!" Remembering Rikku's ability as a swimmer seemed to brighten Yuna, the girl clinging to that with all her might.

"Good, because where we were, there's nothing but a whole lot of ocean."

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Author's note: I've had this kicking around for a while. I'm not entirely sure where its going to go, but since my sparrow like muse insisted I write it, I did. Hope it's alright! I intend to loosely follow the storyline, the same major events will happen, but there will be things inbetween that didn't, like this. I hope that if you like this, you'll Read and Review!


	2. Freefall

**Disclaimer: I don't own FinalFantasyX-2, I'm just using the characters for my own uses. **

**Summary: A look at Rikku and Paine, and the evolving dynamic's between the two, taking a few creative liberties with the storyline but generally following the story. Section in itallics in this chapter means a flashback.**

* * *

The previously expirenced slowing of time seemed to reverse itself as Rikku twisted in the air, and as soon as she got a good look at the fast approaching water, things seemed to speed up. She closed her eyes as she hit, the shock of hitting the cold ocean at the speed she was going rocketing through her entire body, she unable to hold her form after slamming below the surface and down a considerable depth that would have normally taken her a minute or two of swimming. Letting herself go limp but keeping her eyes closed, she felt herself slowly start to level off, and braced herself for the second onrush of feelings. And it was a good thing that she did. Just exactly how cold it was hit her then like a punch, causing her to tense and arch a bit, her eyes flashing open to be greeted with the dim blue light of the depths she had dived to. She had hit the water a little oddly, her left wrist screaming in pain and likely broken from the impact, and she noticed that she had lost her grip on one of her daggers because of it. Thankfully she had desgined them so that the handles were filled with a boyant substance, mindful of nearly loosing a claw or two when in an under water battle during the prilgramage, so the dagger would find its way to the surface, hopefully to be found at some point. Her hair floated into her vision and she realized that her bandana had been forced down to around her neck, and she had lost the sleeve on her left arm. Moving her arms a little, she was then hit with the painful knowledge that not only was her left wrist broken, but it seemed that her arm or shoulder was as well, the shoulder dislocated at the very least. Slipping the dagger she still had into its place on her belt, she tugged at her scarf, twisting it about as she floated there to turn it into a makeshift sling of sorts to keep her injured arm close to her body so it wouldnt flop about and get even worse. Once this was taken care of, she felt the dizzyness from the entire ordeal strike at her mind, and began to kick her legs to propel herself upwards.

Gritting her teeth against the cold and the pain in her arm, she shuddered while continuing to kick upwards. All the factors tumbled together to make her progress through the water slow, and she couldn't help but wonder if the water were thicker here, even if she knew that to be silly. The light around her got brighter and brighter as she swam, and finally, with a toss of her head and a gasping sort of cry, she broke the surface, treading water to keep there. To her dismay, she was quickly aware of the silence aside from the waves, unable to hear the thrum of the Celsius' engine.

"Tyssed." She scanned the surface of the water, trying not to twist herself around too much, though she could easily position herself with the sun. Spying a darker spot on the horizon, she fancied that it might be one of Spira's multiple little uninhabited islands. She started to talk to herself as she floated there.

"Okay, so, I fell off the Celsius, which was behaving unnaturally. Brother's an idiot, but he's not that much of an idiot, so something must have been wrong. Thankfully, the ship can float, so if it stops working, it's not gonna sink." She refused to think of what would happen if the airship landed upside down, knowing that would make it go under. "So I've got about a fifty percent chance that they'll come back soon."

Rikku looked down at her arm, and grimaced, quickly looking away. It was broken alright, her entire upper arm bruised, and she could easily tell where the bone was broken at an odd angle. She thanked the fayth that it hadn't broken the skin, she didn't need to deal with an open wound in the salt water too. At least the cold water was numbing the pain somewhat, but at the same time, it was numbing _her_ too. She knew that most certainly wasn't a good thing. "I want to wait, but what if they can't get back here? Oi." She let herself float to her back and started to kick, directing herself with her good arm. "What if they don't...no, they'll come look. Paine wouldn't let them do otherwise." She blinked faintly as she realized that inside, she was positive that Paine would do so. If you looked at their friendship, and how many times Paine would threaten Rikku with pain for something or another, one might not think that the warrior cared for the thief, but Rikku had always known that Paine had emotions somewhere down in there, and she powerfully cared for her and her cousin. Rikku smiled lightly, letting her thoughts drift as she kicked towards what she hoped was the island, thinking back to when she had first met Paine.

* * *

_"Rikku! Yna oui tuha tufh drana oad?" (Are you done down there yet?) Brother's voice was shrill over the communicator, and Rikku winced where she was currently dangling from a ledge as she climbed up the side of the high walls around the Calm Lands._

_"Keja sa y sehida! Tysh." (Give me a minute! Damn.) She strained upwards for the next handhold. It only figured that the sphere would have to likely be imbedded in the middle of the cliff face, making Rikku have to climb for it. Hearing noises down below, she glanced down, and muttered another curse as she saw some of Leblanc's goons down at the base of the cliff. "Great, and if I don't get this sphere first I'll never hear the end of it." _

_The three goons pointed up at Rikku, then gestured about wildly as they talked. Finally, they took off, and Rikku half hoped they'd leave, but no such luck. They were only going up the side path Rikku had already tried, but were seemingly aiming for the top of the ledge. "Oh crap, they better not be trying from above!" She started moving faster, almost slipping twice in her haste. The goons reached the top and stood around it, looking down at her, about fifty yards up, and seemed to be arguing about if they should try to climb down or not. Rikku smirked as she reached the orb while they argued, and eyed her prize. It was pretty well wedged in where it was, causing the thief to have to consider her options. Wedging herself against another small ledge and holding on with one hand and her feet hopefully on secure footholds, she reached for one of her daggers, and started to try to pry the sphere loose without damaging it. _

_With a victorious squeak from the blond Al-bhed, the sphere popped loose, and to Rikku's simultaneous surprise, amusement, and embarrassment, bounced off her collarbone and wedged itself inside of her bikini top, between her breasts. "Wellll, that's one place to store a sphere..." She mumbled to herself before glancing upwards to see where the goons were. Blinking when she noticed that just the guy was left there, she looked around for the other two femgoons, and spied one down at the base of the cliff, and the third femgoon halfway down the pathway. "...stuck."_

_"Come on girlie! Give up that sphere!" The male goon shouted down to her, pointing with his rifle. _

_"Heck no! This is mine, I found it fair and square, AND I climbed all the way up here for it. If you want it, come and get it!" She stuck her tongue out at him, betting that he wasn't stupid enough to shoot at her while his partner was down directly below. _

_"KRACKPING!' The sound of the shot ringing off the stone nearby quickly quelled -that- ambitious overestimation of the goons intelligence, and Rikku squeaked, nearly slipping. _

_"Rikku! Fryd'c rybbahehk tufh drana?" (What's happening down there?) Brother's tinny sounding voice shrilled in Rikku's ear again._

_"Not NOW Brother!" She scrambled sideways, away from the goon on the pathway, down below a secondary ledge that mostly blocked the male goons sight. This left only the two femgoons, and one tossed a fire spell at her, scorching the rock. Rikku silently thanked the fayth that the goons had proven themselves to be bad shots in the past, and weren't making an exception for that this time. "Nice to see that Leblanc is keeping up her ever so high standards in the creeps she hires!" She shouted, and the two femgoons flapped their arms around. A teensy part of her mind thought that it might be a bad idea to taunt the people throwing spells at her as she scrambled sideways and down at a slight angle, but she couldn't stop herself._

_"We're the better sphere hunting group than you Gullwings are, and you know it! That's the only reason you feel you have to yell such insults at us!" One of the femgoons sounded so...convinced...of that, and Rikku laughed. _

_"Oh yeah? Then how come the four of us have managed to find more spheres than your entire Syndicate?" Rikku dangled from one arm for a moment, swinging back and forth until she got close enough to another ledge to latch on with her other hand._

_"You stole the last three!" The femgoon on the pathway threw a weak ice spell at her, grazing her back, but Rikku was so warmed up from the climbing that it honestly felt good instead of hurting._

_"We did not! I only take your gil!" Rikku grinned, knowing that was only partial truth. She took anything not pinned down, but these low level goons rarely had a sphere, and she was never able to steal one off of them. Any spheres lost by them to other hunters or stupidity was likely always blamed on someone 'stealing', and who better to blame than the all Al-bhed spherehunting group that was leaps and bounds better than they?_

_Another shot rang out from above, but again missed, apparently getting too near to the goon on the ground, who yelled up at the one up above. Rikku shook her head and moved as fast as she could, trying to take advantage of the distraction. Unfortunately, moving faster meant she wasn't quite paying enough attention to the stabilities of the rock, and with a shout of surprise, lost her handholds and fell. She was thankfully only about fifty feet off the ground at that point, but landed with a oof and a loss of breath, wincing as she rolled to her side and pushed herself up on her hands and knees. She saw the two femgoons rushing towards her out of the corner of her eye, and desperately tried to regain her breath so she could fight them off. The two femgoons skidded to a stop within spellcasting range, and Rikku was momentarily impressed with the fact that they were smart enough to try to cast their spells together for maximum damage, but dismayed that she was the target, and unable to summon her voice to call for help from the Celsius. She closed her eyes, steeling herself for the incoming spells and trying to draw a breath._

_A shout and cry from one goon and the feel of a partly aborted fire spell made Rikku open her eyes and look to the two goons. One was down and out of it, the other scrambled back to stand against the rockwall. Standing over the fallen goon and eying the second goon was a tall, dark clothed woman, a long and wicked looking sword held leisurely in one hand. _

_"Now now, three against one? That's not very nice." The woman's voice was cool and confident, and Rikku felt an instant pang of attraction towards the pale haired warrior, staring at the scene in front of her even as her lungs were screaming at her for air. _

_The femgoon launched an ice attack towards the woman, who easily dodged it on her way as she rushed to strike the pink clad caster, knocking her down and away like the first. The male goon made an appearance now, but one look at the two fallen goons as he came around a corner and he turned tail and ran. _

_Tears were running down Rikku's face by this point in time and she turned her gaze away from the woman, hanging her head and grimacing as she finally managed to draw in a ragged breath, gritting her teeth against the pain in her back from the likely busted or at the very least bruised ribs. She breathed as deeply as she could aside from the pain and eyed the sphere that dropped from her chest and into the dirt in front of her, thinking of how this thing had better be worth all of this trouble. _

_The sound of footsteps drew Rikku's gaze up, and she met the eyes of the warrior woman, who was now crouched next to her, and holding out a potion. "Here, drink this when you catch your breath." The woman's relatively emotionless voice sent a small tremor through Rikku, who eyed the warrior up and down for a moment. _

_"I don't know if...if I should thank you..or..or be running." Rikku managed to say, gingerly reaching out and taking the offered potion._

_A faint smirk rested on the woman's lips. "You're right to not know that. I could relatively easily take you our in your current state. But why would I want to do that?" She shrugged, shifting to kneel and sit back a bit. "It's up to you to trust me."_

_Rikku quickly drank the potion, not taking her eyes from the woman. She found herself drawn in a bit by the woman's red eyes and spiky pale hair, it not something she was used to seeing. "If I hadn't fallen, I could have easily taken them down you know." _

_The woman raised an eyebrow slightly. "A child with a pop gun could have taken them down." She smirked a bit, and Rikku pushed herself into a sitting position, palming the sphere as she did so and discreetly slipping it into one of her pouches. She noticed the faint look of surprise in the woman's eyes as she noticed that the sphere was no longer there. _

_Rikku sat, but it was in a position she could easily jump up from or get away from a strike in. She was grateful for this woman's help, but she still didn't know if she should be thanking her or running yet, if the woman was really just after the sphere or not. "Yeah, but it's fun to fight them, they're so stupid at what they do. At least sometimes one can get gil off of them." _

_"I figured as much, but they weren't exactly honorable in their method of attack." The woman ran one hand through her hair, and blew at a floating seed as it went past her face. _

_Rikku smiled at that. She wouldn't have attacked someone who just fell so far and was out of breath, but not really out of any sort of sense of honor more than it was just more fun to fight someone on their feet when you were confident in your abilities. With fiends, that was a different story, but with a person, it was just more enjoyable to not take advantage of something like that unless the situation called for it. Holding one hand out, she smiled one of her radiant smiles. "I'm Rikku, thanks for the help!"_

_The woman looked down at Rikku's hand, her eyebrow arching again at Rikku's bright smile. She hesitated a moment, then reached forward and shook the offered hand. "You're welcome, Rikku."_

_"What, I don't get a name?"_

_"Why should you?"_

_"Well, I'd like to know who I owe a favor too."_

_The warrior smiled faintly. "Fair enough. I'm Paine."_

_"Paine huh? Nice name. What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"_

_Paine shrugged. "Traveling."_

_"Where?"_

_Paine eyed the blond in front of her. "Nowhere in particular."_

_"Why?"_

_"You ask a lot of questions, don't you?"_

_"Of course."_

_Paine sighed lightly. "Well, truth be told, I was looking for you."_

_"Me?" Rikku blinked, a little bit of wariness kicking in again, her mind backtracking to try to think of if she had seen Paine before, and stolen something from the woman who now wanted it back._

_"You are a member of the Gullwings, right? You're Guardian Rikku, aren't you?"_

_Momentarily taken back by being recognized as one of Yuna's guardians, Rikku smiled. "Yep, I'm a Gullwing. I'd not be listening to my brother and climbing stupidly high rock walls to pry a sphere out of a hole just for fun afterall." She paused for a moment, considering this as she deliberately left out any sort of acknowledgment about her time as a Guardian. "Well, maybe I would." Paine made a strange sort of face out of the corner of her eye, and she found herself liking the fact that she seemed to have the ability to disarm this cool and collected woman._

_"Good. I have the perfect way you can repay me for saving you today."_

_"Repay you? You're not getting the sphere! Oh no, not after all the crap today!" Rikku hopped to her feet and stepped back once, and Paine chuckled lightly._

_"I don't want the sphere, at least, I don't want to take it from you. I want to see what's on it, and see what other sort of spheres you have, and I've heard you have a lot of them. None of the other groups have had anything that I wanted to see."_

_Rikku found herself brimming with questions, like who told Paine about the Gullwings, who she had talked to already, what sort of spheres the scant few other groups who searched for them had, but only one came to her tongue. "Why?"_

_"Because."_

_"Yes, well, you and the rest of Spira want to see these. The Praetor of New Yevon has let it be known that he's interested in buying spheres for a common library, and so has the Maven of the Youth League. Personally I'd rather sell to the Youth League, but, well, you can wait till it's set up and we sell our spheres."_

_Paine sighed again, and stood as well. "I'd really rather not wait that long. Is there something I could do that would convince you if you don't want that to be how you repay me for my help?"_

_Rikku tilted her head slightly. No one had asked to see their spheres before, not like this. She and her brother being a pair of packrats, they actually still had all of the sphere's they found, which was a relatively large number, and had fended off offers from the two groups currently vying for power in Spira, not needing the gil bad enough to get rid of their little pieces of history just yet. She really, honestly, wasn't entirely certain as to why she, Brother, Shinra and Buddy were out and running around the world like they were, but imagined for her Brother at least, it was largely to get out from under their father's gaze, and she was only too happy to travel, not wanting to settle after saving the world from Sin a year earlier. She furrowed her brow slightly, then, the idea struck her like a lighting bolt._

_"You can join us!"_

_Paine blinked. "What?"_

_"You can join us! You can search for spheres with us, and that way you'll be able to see what we found. You said it yourself, we have more than any of the other groups out there, and there's a reason for that, we're good. I'm good. Brother and Buddy and Shinra just fly the ship. I'm the one who goes out and crawls all over the place for these things. We're good, but I could certainly use the help of someone on the ground when going after something. I'm really tired of having to run away from the really large fiends. I can take care of most myself, but, hey, it would be great to have a partner! And another woman, god, I'm so tired of being around men all the time. What is it with large amounts of Al-bhed men traveling around in like, packs?"_

_Rikku knew she was babbling, but she could also tell that Paine seemed to be considering it. "Come on Paine. Or would you rather go join with those pink jumpsuit wearing goofs Leblanc employs and be constantly beaten to the punch by me and the Gullwings?" Rikku smirked, looking towards the two femgoons who had gotten up and were currently trying to sneak away without being noticed. Fishing in her pouches for a moment, Rikku hauled back and tossed a grenade at them, laughing as it exploded and they ran off screaming._

_Paine looked back and watched the two goons flee, and shook her head. "I would never wear pink." She emphasized 'never', then turned to look at Rikku. "A Gullwing, huh? Well, why not?"_

_"Great!" Rikku hopped from one foot to the other for a moment, then held out her hand. "Welcome to the group!"_

_"Rikku? Rikku! I am the leader! I am.." Brother's voice was cut off as Rikku clamped her hand down over the communicator, still holding her other hand out to Paine._

_"Don't mind him. He's easy to ignore."_

_Paine looked doubtful for a moment, but then with a faint smirk, took Rikku's hand and shook it firmly. "Great. When do I start?"_

_"Right now!" Rikku giggled and handed the sphere to Paine. "You can claim this find. But next time its whichever one of us gets a hold of it first. We'll start keeping track then!" She laughed, and waved to the airship as it cruised down into the valley of the Calm Lands._

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_Rikku drew herself from her memories as she felt herself starting to slow, the cold and time spent seemingly endlessly kicking wearing on her body. She floated upright and treaded water again, looking about. She smiled as she found herself very near to what did indeed prove itself to be an island, the sight renewing her determination as she rolled onto her back again, and started kicking yet again. The memory of Paine 'rescuing' her almost a year ago also uplifted her hope that she'd be found soon, knowing that the warrior and her cousin would search for her as soon as they could. Now all she needed to do, was get herself to that island, get herself a fire, and wait it out. It all seemed so simple to her in her tired state, and she held tightly to her hope. It's what got her through Sin, and if she could get through that, she could get through anything, and she was damn stubborn too. Rikku let herself focus her thoughts on Paine, smiling slightly against the pain and cold, feeling the familiar tingling in her stomach every time she thought of her feelings for the warrior. Furrowing her brow a bit, she nodded to herself, watching the gulls fly about, they coming into view as she got closer to the island. "I've got to tell her somehow. I can't wait anymore. Things are getting dangerous, and though I know we'll get through it, I'd never forgive myself if I didn't tell her..."

She oofed softly as her back ran aground, rolling to her right and dropping her hand to the sand below, her knees sinking into the sand. Looking upwards, she eyed the wide sandy beach, and the small cluster of trees on the circular, tiny island. Starting to shiver as she got up out of the water, she staggered to shore, falling twice to her knees. Forcing herself to stand again, she gathered together a few small pieces of wood, sitting down with her back to the trees. Closing her eyes, she continued to shiver as she tried to focus, and after a great amount of strain and concentration, she cast a small fireball to the wood, starting a bit of flame growing, feeding it wood until she had a nice, bright fire. Just in time as well, as she watched the sun sink below the waves. Scanning the sky for the airship, she sighed, scooting a little closer to the fire, and hunkered down to wait.

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Authors Note: I like writing Rikku, she makes me smile. Please Read and Review! Im not so sure this is my strongest chapter, but I like to keep the chapters similar in length, and this was in risk of going way over. It seemed to stall a little, to me, but Im horribly critical of my own stuff. Opinions appreciated! 


	3. Controlled Panic

**Disclaimer: I don't own FinalFantasy **X-2, **all original rights reserved.**

**Summary: A Rikku and Paine, and the evolving dynamic between the two, taking some creative liberties with the story but following the main storyline.**

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Yuna watched as Paine paced around the engine room, the silver haired warrior glaring at the engines when they started to whine lightly from the strain Buddy's piloting of the injured ship was putting on them. Yuna twisted the half skirt of her gunner outfit in her hands, chewing on her lower lip as the various possibilities as to what could have happened to Rikku kept flashing through her mind. To say that Paine was agitated was to woefully understate her current state of mind, Paine was going mad with concern, and guilt at not being able to catch a hold of Rikku when the ship started to lurch. She was calling on everything she learned as a warrior to keep her focus on the plans for finding the fallen thief. 

"Yuna, stop that." Paine's voice was harsh as she startled the ex-summoner from her thoughts, Yuna blinking at the other woman who had come to a stop in front of her.

"Huh?"

Paine scowled a bit, a small part of Yuna's mind thinking that this was the most emotion she had ever seen from the woman. "Stop twisting your skirt like that. It's maddening."

"And your pacing around isn't?" Yuna snapped back, then eeped lightly as Paine gave her a look that would likely kill most weaker fiends.

"We have to get the raft ready. The ship's descending." Paine stalked over to one of the storage chests, pulling out a rugged inflatable raft used for getting to shore when the Celsius can't land on a small island. The intercom near the door crackled with static, coming to life as the slight jarring motion of the airship landing on the water was felt.

"Paine, Yuna, Buddy here. I managed to get her landed, and I think we're close to where things happened, but Im not entirely sure. I don't think that we'll be able to get the Celsius in the air again until I get the controls fixed, though. But we can steer her along the water if needed, okay?" The navigator's voice was tense.

Yuna ran up the steps to the intercom, pushing a button and replying. "We understand. Paine's getting the raft ready.."

"Yuna, come on." Paine interrupted, pulling the readied raft towards the door that opened to the outside.

"We've got our communicators Buddy, we'll be in constant contact." Yuna clicked the intercom off and jumped over the railing to down by Paine, helping the warrior push the raft down the ramp as the door opened, showing the darkening sky. "Oh no, the sun set..."

"That's what the lanterns are for." Paine gestured to the two lamps set at the ends of the raft. "Get in, I'll push it into the water." Yuna nodded and quickly obeyed Paine's order, shifting into her white mage dressphere as she did so, the end of her staff lighting up to add a bit more light. Paine pushed the raft into the water, jumping in as the door closed behind her, and started up the small engine, steering away from the Celsius in order to orient themselves in the open water.

"Rikku!" Yuna called out, shining the lantern around over the surface of the water. "Rikku!"

"Yuna, quiet a moment. If she were near, she'd have seen and heard the Celsius. Listen for her." Paine clenched her jaw a little, squinting towards the horizon to try to spy a landmark against the last light of the setting sun. Her warriors eye spied a darker shape that didn't move like the waves, and started the raft heading in that direction, the engine a light hum.

Yuna started murmuring softly to herself, Paine recognizing the hymn of the fayth that she heard Yuna often hum to herself in stressful situations. It personally drove her nuts, and she knew even Rikku was irritated with it, but Paine knew Rikku wouldn't say anything about it to her cousin. It occasionally bothered Paine that the Al-bhed was so quick to put aside her own happiness for Yuna's, and she never could quite figure it out, and was mildly irritated that it was because of Yuna that they were in this whole mess with Vegnagun. True, they hadn't actually gotten involved in anything yet, Nooj had only given them a vague idea of what was going on, and hinted they likely should stay out of it, the Youth League was going to handle it. Paine had a bit of a sinking suspicion that they'd end up dealing with it -anyway-, she guessed that there was just something about Yuna that wouldn't let the ex-summoner turn away from helping Spira. Then there was the whole thing with the Leblanc syndicate and having to find a way to sneak in to the headquarters to get their broken sphere back, but all of that was far from Paine's mind. Right now, all she cared about was finding Rikku.

They had traveled away from the Celsius for about two hours now, the ship lost behind the horizon. Buddy would check in periodically, and had let them know that Brother was awake and okay, and that he and Shinra had made some progress in repairing the damage to the ship, mentioning once that it really seemed that someone had sabotaged the ship while they were in Kilika, but it was too early to really say, and there were much more pressing matters to deal with. The further they got from the airship, the more frequently Yuna called out for Rikku, swinging the lantern from the front of the ship back and forth across the water.

"What's that?" Yuna pointed out towards the right with her staff, leaning out over the edge of the raft a bit, swinging the light towards it.

Paine furrowed her brow and steered towards where Yuna was pointing, a small shiver flowing through her as she realized what it was, Yuna gasping audibly. One of Rikku's sleeves floated on the water, Paine reaching out to grab a hold of it, noticing that two of the bows were ripped free. "One of Rikku's sleeves." Paine stated simply, handing the bit of fabric to Yuna, continuing to steer the boat.

Yuna held the bit of fabric close to her chest, and Paine couldn't help but feel that Yuna had almost already decided that Rikku was gone. Paine scowled at the dark sky and the silence that answered each of Yuna's calls, the girl starting to get a little hoarse. A half hour passed from where they had found the sleeve when there was a light bump against the boat, Paine swinging the lantern from the back off to the side, stalling the motion of the boat.

"What?" Yuna questioned, moving to lean and look where Paine was.

"Not sure, felt a bump against the boat." Paine looked back towards where they had come from, Yuna leaning and continuing to look where they had stopped. Squinting as she held the light out over the water, she spied something glinting in the water. Reaching back, she grasped Yuna's staff and tugged on it lightly. "Yuna, let me use that, please."

Yuna let Paine take her staff, but continued to look out opposite from where the warrior was. Paine stretched the staff out towards the shape, guiding it closer. "Her dagger." She clenched her teeth as she realized what it was and pulled it closer, dropping the staff into the bottom of the boat and picking up the red knife.

"But why is it so far from where her sleeve was?" Yuna clutched her staff to her as Paine slipped the dagger into her belt.

"It's heavier than the sleeve, and likely took longer to float to the surface, so a current probably drew it here." Paine mentally smiled at how smart it was for Rikku to have made the dagger handle buoyant. This info made Yuna start calling out again as Paine started the ship moving again, thinking to herself. 'Rikku, you better be out there, or I'll go to the farplane and bitch you out like you never heard...' Her thoughts became occupied with the feelings she had towards the young Al-bhed, it nearing the year mark since they had known each other.

She had found the bubbly girl irritating at first, that she couldn't deny. When Rikku had asked her to join the Gullwings, she quickly found herself wondering what she had gotten into, the four Al-bhed more than she had ever dealt with. Buddy and Shinra she quickly learned to deal with, it was Rikku and the hyperactive and seemingly mentally disturbed Brother who were a lot harder for her to get used to. She did however, quickly learn to respect Rikku and her abilities as the two went out in the field after spheres, her abilities making it easier for Paine to find ways to get along with the thief, and soon enough, the two had formed a curious friendship. Paine had also found herself caring for Rikku in ways that she didn't really want to acknowledge. Being in the raft and looking for Rikku scared her more than she really wanted to admit, and she knew that she would never quite forget the feeling, nor the sight, from when Rikku fell from the deck and she was unable to catch her. She felt a growing determination to find a way to voice her feelings to Rikku, ignoring for the moment the fact that she first had to find the words to describe what it was she felt in the first place.

As Yuna called out yet again, Paine was drawn from her thoughts by noticing a light in the distance that seemed a lot brighter than the glittering stars. Moving the light behind her, she gestured to Yuna. "Yuna, here, steer the boat for a bit." She moved forward to the front of the boat past the quizzical look she was getting, and dimmed the light at the front.

"Paine?" Yuna moved to steer as asked, keeping the boat going in a straight line.

"There's a light up ahead!" Paine felt a surge of hope as she realized what she was seeing wasn't a star, but rather what she figured was a fire on the thing she had determined long ago to be an island, the whole reason they were heading in that direction.

"Maybe it's Rikku!" Yuna's voice lifted with the same hope as Paine felt, and Paine nodded, letting a faint smile escape. The engine thrummed louder as Yuna increased the speed, both she and Paine subconsciously leaning forward as if urging the boat to go faster.

Paine held the lantern just above her shoulder and back a little, letting it illuminate the area but keep her vision clear so she wasn't partly blinded by the light. She crouched at the edge of the raft, faintly biting her lower lip as she stared at the little fire as they got closer. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she was able to make out a figure lying in the sand next to it. "Rikku!" She called out, half hoping that it would be just some random person who decided to live on the small island who would be mad at her for waking them, but no such luck, they didn't respond, and as they neared, she was able to see Rikku's teletale blond hair. As the raft first bumped against the sand, she jumped from it into the shallows, hearing the engine of the raft complain as Yuna gunned it to run it ashore.

"Rikku?" She called again, softer as she neared and dropped down to her knees next to the still girl, Yuna running up behind her a moment later with one of the lanterns.

"Rikku! Oh Spira...Paine...is she?.." Yuna trailed off and bit her lip as Paine gave her a look that would kill most weaker fiends, falling silent and holding the lantern up while clutching her staff to her shoulder.

Paine stroked her fingers over Rikku's forehead, frowning at the feel of her fever, her eyes trailing down over the girl's body. She noticed the condition of her arm at the same time Yuna did, judging by the gasp she heard behind her, and faintly touched the bruised area. "We'll have to set the bone before you can heal it Yuna...her wrist too." She cupped Rikku's cheek and stroked her thumb back and forth softly. Again her breath caught as she felt the girl stir, and when she saw the bright emerald glitter of Rikku's eyes, she realized it was one of the most beautiful and relieving sights she's ever seen.

"Uhn...Paine? Yunie?" Rikku's voice was soft and shaky, and she looked as if she didn't believe what she was seeing.

Paine blinked a few times to force back the tears she felt threatening in her eyes, nodding and giving Rikku a rare smile, rewarded with a faint one from the girl. "Yeah, it's us. Thought you could fly, huh?"

Rikku rolled her eyes slightly and tried to sit up, Paine shifting around to gently gather Rikku up into her arms, grimacing slightly as the thief whimpered faintly as her arm was moved. "I didn't flap my arms well enough I guess."

Yuna was openly crying at this point as she knelt down in the sand, taking her cousins good hand into hers and squeezing tightly. "We were so worried! I'm so glad we found you, I don't...I..." She bowed her head, Rikku squeezing Yuna's hand and rubbing her thumb back and forth against Yuna's.

"Shh, it's okay Yunie, you found me, huh?" She heavily dropped her head to Paine's shoulder, closing her eyes for a moment before she looked out towards the water. "Where's the Celsius? I want off of this island."

Paine shook her head a little. "We'll have to wait until morning. Buddy was able to land it about two hours away from here by raft, I don't want to get us lost on the raft, and they're still working on it." She went on to fill in Rikku about what happened, what they suspected had happened, and what was going on, Yuna filling in what happened before Paine had gotten to the ships bridge. They also let Buddy know that Rikku had been found, and coordinated with him to find the island in the morning.

Rikku frowned through the entire explanation, shaking her head. "Great, just what we needed, more problems." She scowled, shifting a bit in Paine's arms, her eyes looking a little glazed as she shivered softly.

Paine shifted slightly herself to get comfortable as Yuna transformed back into her gunner dressphere, since it had been determined that a little more care would be needed before Rikku's injuries could properly be healed. "Here, this should help you feel a little better." Paine smiled faintly as she pulled Rikku's dagger from her belt, a little thrill going through her as Rikku's eyes widened and she smiled happily.

"My dagger! I knew it was a good idea to have it buoyant. Thank you for finding it." She kissed Paine's cheek, not seeming to notice as the warrior blushed softly, Paine brushing the sign of thanks as a byproduct of Rikku being so worn physically instead of anything deeper, murmuring a soft 'you're welcome'. Yuna came back to the fire with an armful of firewood, feeding the flames back into a brighter glow, looking around as she sat next to Paine and Rikku.

"This island isn't big, I was able to walk around it. I bet there are other small islands near here.' Yuna remarked.

"Maybe. Not often you find a solitary island." Paine shrugged lightly.

"I don't care if there are any other islands near, I'm just glad I was able to find this one!" Rikku smiled a little to her cousin, then let her eyes close, keeping her head rested to Paine's shoulder. Paine tilted her head slightly, faintly brushing her fingers of her free hand over Rikku's swollen and bruised arm, scowling lightly. She jumped lightly when Rikku spoke in soft Al-bhed, knowing that Paine understood it. "Ed'c kuehk du rind y mud frah dra puha kadc cad, ech'd ed?" (_It's going to hurt a lot when the bone gets set, isn't it?_)

Paine nodded lightly, answering in Spiran as she was resistant to actually speaking Al-bhed, but kept her voice too low for Yuna to hear, though judging by the spaced out look on the girl's face as she stared up at the stars, Yuna wasn't listening anyway. "Yeah, I'm sorry, but it will."

Rikku sighed. "Knayd." (_Great._) She turned her head and looked at the bruising, smiling faintly. "Yd maycd ed megamo lyh'd rind yhosuna dryh ed ymnayto tuac. yht ed'c sunpetmo bnaddo, eh y 'knayd Ixion dryd'c yh ikmo pnieca' cund uv fyo." (_At least it likely can't hurt anymore than it already does. and it's morbidly pretty, in a 'great Ixion that's an ugly bruise' sort of way._)

That drew a smile from Paine, the warrior having had such morbidly amusing thoughts in the past in the field, knowing it was a way of coping with the stress and pain. "It clashes with your eyes." She felt her cheeks flushing as soon as she said that, but was so happy to hear the giggle that got.

"Eh, the yellow kinda matches." Rikku smiled softly, then grimaced as she shifted a little, closing her eyes.

Paine faintly bit her lower lip, glancing over to see that Yuna had laid down and seemed asleep, then she looked back to Rikku, her voice soft as she spoke. "I'm sorry, Rikku."

That caused Rikku to open her eyes again, looking confused up at Paine. "Sorry? For what?"

"For letting you fall." Paine glanced away, then blinked as Rikku laughed.

"Paine, you made one hell of a gouge in the deck with your sword, and did everything you could have to try to get me before you got knocked to the door. You have nothing to apologize to me for, honestly." She reached up with her good hand, and gently cupped Paine's cheek, feeling the heat of the woman's blush, knowing hers were hot as well. "It's okay."

Paine reached up and gently pulled Rikku's hand down, a few voices in her head telling her that she really needed to remember that Rikku was both in pain, and had a fever, and she shouldn't do anything rash or approach serious subjects while the Al-bhed likely wasn't completely in her right mind. No matter how much she wanted to bend down and kiss the girl right there and now that she had her in her arms, and was no longer afraid for her life. Seeing the slight look of hurt in Rikku's eyes when she pulled her hand down, Paine inhaled a deep breath and gently kissed the back of her hand. "If you say so. But, you need to rest, okay? I'll stay up for the watch."

Rikku closed her eyes and exhaled softly. "I'll not argue with that. I feel like I could sleep forever."

Paine scowled slightly. "Forever? Not willing to let you do that yet. But I'll give you a few hours."

Rikku smiled lightly, her breathing already evening out as she started to drift off. "Just need a few hours...thank you..." Her voice trailed off as Paine felt her fall completely asleep.

As the silence settled on the little hunk of sand with a few trees, Paine looked around, finally taking the time to study the island she credited with saving Rikku's life. She smiled lightly, considering how it would be a decent place to set up a small hut, though, that also depended on if there were other islands nearby. She liked her solitary places, which was why she holed up in the engine room so often. A gentle wind blew across the sand, the flames flickering about as the fire crackled. Paine let her eyes trail down to look over Rikku's form again, taking advantage of the stillness to let herself refresh her memory of how the girl looked.

"You care for her, don't you Paine?" Yuna's soft voice startled Paine from her revere.

Paine frowned lightly. "Of course, she's a teammate, like you. You're my friends."

Yuna smiled sleepily from where she lay. "That's all?"

"Yes." That little voice kept trying to say that was true, which the honest one she knew was right kept going 'pft, liar.'

"Are you sure?"

"Are you trying to lose respect points like Rikku now?"

Yuna giggled softly. "Wake me in a few hours and I'll watch till morning." She grinned as Paine grunted noncommittally, rolling over to her side and letting her back be to the fire.

Paine sighed softly and shook her head. She had that sinking feeling that she was getting into something deeper than she really fully realized. It scared her a little, but as she looked at Rikku in her arms, she knew she was quite willing to try anyway, all she needed now was that bit of courage to take the first step.


	4. Memories

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, SquareEnix does.**

**Summary: A look at the relationship between Rikku and Paine and the dynamics therein.**

**Note: Italics indicate a flashback. **

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_"You do this on a regular basis?" Paine asked a little breathlessly as she ran behind Rikku, glancing over her shoulder at the very large and very angry chimera that was chasing after them. It had oversouled, and when they realized that their attacks weren't doing a thing, Rikku declared it time to flee._

_"Oh, yes, of course Paine. I go out each day with every intention of running for my life! Keeps me in shape!" Rikku didn't bother to look back at the fiend, her scarf flowing behind her as she ran through the Thunderplains towards the travel agency. Each strike of lightning nearby still made her flinch, but after her little camping trip she was much calmer in this particular area. Of course, that was on days that she wasn't being chased by something that wanted to eat her head._

_"Oh, well, you could have fooled me." Sarcasm, Rikku was quickly learning, was a standard of speech for Paine. The warrior had only been with the Gullwings for a week, and the two women were prodding a bit at each others boundaries still, Rikku a fair bit more than Paine was._

_"Pah, we've only run from three!" Rikku skidded down a small incline, mud now coating the side of her leg. She glanced over her shoulder to the dark clad, and now slightly muddy as well warrior. "A little running never..Look out!" _

_The chimera had managed to get closer even as they ran fast, Rikku spying the monster readying to strike. She turned and dove towards Paine, knocking the surprised girl aside as the chimera's claw swiped where she used to be, snagging on Rikku's scarf and dragging her back a bit. Paine growled and swung her sword out, striking at the fiend's arm as Rikku squirreled out of her scarf and out of the monsters reach. The chimera roared as Paine's angry strike hit home enough that it pulled back, giving them enough of a break to get near to the travel agency, near enough that the angry fiend finally stopped it's chase as the two ran into the building._

_A young Al-bhed girl looked up in surprise as the door slammed open and Rikku and Paine ran into the inn. Rikku fell to her knees in front of the fire, hands on the ground and head hanging as she panted to catch her breath. Paine came to a stop next to her, bending over and resting her hands on her knees, breathing heavily as well. _

_"Ah..alright, are you?" The innkeepers accent was thick and her Spiran still shaky as she blushed in embarrassment. She was likely set out in the Thunder plains by Rin precisely because of that, not many people came through the area, even though the Al-bhed were jabbering about fixing the lightening towers._

_Rikku lifted her head and smiled crookedly. "Fiend, oac, fa'na veha, kud yfyo vnus ed." (Fiend, yes, we're fine, got away from it.) _

_The girl smiled and nodded, and flipped a few pages in a book. "Room?" She looked back and forth between Rikku and Paine, blinking after a moment. Paine had to smile lightly as she saw the light of recognition in the innkeepers eyes, her smile growing a little more as she heard Rikku groan lightly as she knew what was going to come next._

_"Kiynteyh Rikku!" (Guardian Rikku!) She hurried around the counter to help Rikku stand, who tried vainly to wave off the 'help' as the girl started to babble, Paine watching amused as it actually flustered the usually hyperactively talkative thief._

_Paine straightened up once her breath was caught again, walking over to a chair and settling herself in it, watching as the innkeeper talked Rikku into a figurative corner, asking question after question about numerous things, many focusing on the Pilgrimage to defeat Sin. Paine knew of Rikku's time with Summoner Yuna, everyone in Spira knew of it, though a good portion of the population liked to ignore both the fact that Yuna was half Al-bhed, and that there was an Al-bhed guardian who aided in the final defeat of Sin. The Al-bhed themselves, though, were quite proud of these facts, Yuna and Rikku held in high regard among their people. Add onto it that Rikku was the daughter of the Al-bhed's tribal leader, and you got one of the higher held people in Spira. Who, Paine discovered, didn't much like to talk about either of those things._

_She found it admirable. Initial impression would make one think that Rikku would enjoy the attention, and not be so humble about it, but Rikku insisted that she was only doing what anyone else would. Of course, not just anyone would do the things done, but Rikku didn't seem to consider that. From talking with Buddy, Paine learned that where Brother was happy to let it be known that he was the son of Cid, Rikku seemed to be determined to make a name for herself outside of that, and Paine could see that she also wanted to be known for something other than being a Guardian. While the girl's humility over it was admirable on one level, Paine was also a little confused, thinking that she'd want to be known for such a world altering event. The fact that she was curious over it all irritated her, though, and it was unlikely that Paine would ever actually ask Rikku directly about it._

_"Alright, alright, we'll take a room. Right Paine?" Rikku's smile was a little forced as she looked to the tall warrior for help._

_"You get to pay for it this time." Paine replied, stretching her arms out to the sides. _

_"Oh, no! No need gil!" The girl shook her head quickly, walking back behind the countertop and getting a key, hurrying back to Rikku. "Here, room down hallway open, two bed." Rikku tried to object and give the girl the gil, but no matter what she said, it was refused. Finally, likely to just get away, Rikku agreed and grabbed Paine's wrist, hauling the girl up and dragging her down the hall to the indicated room. Opening the door, she almost shoved Paine in before entering and closing the door behind her. Paine smirked, walking over and sitting on one of the beds. _

_"So insistent on getting me into the room. I'll have you know I'm not that easy." She continued to smirk, and Rikku rolled her eyes as she flopped over onto the other bed. _

_"Ha ha. I'm so amused." Rikku made a slight face, and Paine ignored the slight twinge the rejection of the teasing sent into her.  
_ _

* * *

_

Paine blinked out of the memory, shaking her head a little as the feeling from the end of the memory drifted briefly through her. She reached up and rubbed her hand against her eyes, murmuring lightly. "Even back then?"

She looked down at Rikku, frowning lightly as she noticed the pained look on the Al-bhed's features, the heavier breathing of restless dreams causing Rikku to jerk slightly now and then, the pain from her arm likely causing the unsettledness. Paine suspected it was a motion from her that had drawn her from her revery, and she reached up to stroke her fingers softly through Rikku's bangs. Murmuring a soft soothing nonsense sounds to Rikku as she reflected on the memory, she mused, speaking softly to herself.

"Well if that's not a blatant reminder of past emotions, I don't know what it was." Paine sighed softly, her eyes lifting to the stars. The entire day had seriously unnerved her, and that was worrisome enough without past emotions clouding the issue. She had trained herself to press her emotions to the background, they too often interrupted or got in the way when clear thinking was in order. With a light grunt of irritation, she realized that she had run into her old nemesis: the fact that when it came to situations like this, she needed to both be clear minded, and let her emotions come in as well. Paine loathed getting herself into this sort of mess.

"But is it such a mess?" She looked down at Rikku again, her ruby colored eyes shining in the dim firelight. "Dangerous to fall for a teammate, but at the same time...some of the best partnerships can be formed that way. And we do fight well together." The memory caused her to smile while thinking of that statement. "At least, when we're not running from an oversouled fiend."

Paine looked over at Yuna, the gunner sprawled out on her back and snoring lightly. Yuna had added an entirely new dimension to the fights with fiends, and while her skills were appreciated, Paine had initially felt that the addition of the girl to their group was more of a disruption than anything. She and Rikku had a year and a half of experience together, and she thought they did well enough alone. The fact that Rikku had been one of Yuna's Guardians, and thusly knew her cousin's fighting style, despite Yuna never having used guns before, helped them find a way to work together. It also helped that she and Rikku had the 'joy' of convincing Yuna to actually use the guns and stop being such a pacifist, teaching her to use them let them tailor the ex-summoner's skills to work with them best.

It also irritated Paine that Yuna was just so good at getting under her skin in a way that she couldn't snap at her for. Rikku had a knack for asking questions in the way that left it open for Paine to retaliate with 'respect points'. It was a playful teasing at this point, and Paine realized that she mostly did it for Rikku's reaction, which she found rather cute, despite acting as if it was annoying. Paine now understood why Gippal insisted on continuing to call her 'Cid's girl', even if the Machine Faction leader was an arrogant twit and she wanted to beat him every time he got Rikku riled up, at least lately.

"Damn, I've been crazy for you for quite a while now, huh?" Paine let herself smile as her mind pulled up time after time that showed her feelings. Everything from wanting to kill Gippal to the slight murderous rages that she would go into if a fiend managed to strike Rikku. Most obvious of them all, the issues of today and the fear that it brought up. That fear was more than just the fear of losing a teammate, that was the fear of losing someone so important, that if they were gone, one's life would never be the same.

Glancing over to Yuna to make sure the girl was still asleep, Paine leaned her head down, and lightly brushed her lips over Rikku's forehead, murmuring lightly. "I think you stole my heart, little thief."

* * *

_"Oh Spira, oh fayth, oh Spira..." Rikku ran as fast as she could through the dark cave, crying out lightly when she tripped and scraped a layer of skin off of her arm. "Brother! Can you hear me!" _

_No response came from the Celsius, Rikku to far underground for the communicators to properly work. "Tyssed!" (Dammit!) She tripped again, just barely managing to keep herself from plummeting over the edge of a very large crevice. As she paused to regain her balance, she heard the roar of a fiend echo off the rock walls, the sound coming from somewhere in front of her. The sound of steel against stone was heard immediately after, and Rikku spurred herself back into motion. _

_"Fayth preserve you Paine, if you get yourself eaten down here I swear that I'm actually going to go to the Farplane to bitch you out. And that's saying a lot from me!" A teensy part of Rikku's ever active mind felt a twinge of guilt in how she hadn't visited the Farplane since about a month after Sin was destroyed. Sure, the Al-bhed didn't really believe that the figures the pyre flies showed were actually the person who passed on, but after finding out more about the Unsent, and having a bit of a heartbreaking crush on one, Rikku tried to go, to see Auron, and talk to him. She knew that Yuna had visited almost monthly, trying to summon an image of Tidus, but never successfully, only managing to call forth her father, and by reports from Lulu, the monk as well. Rikku had found after that first time that she went, that she never really could bring herself to face those memories again, the pain from losing him still fresh in her heart, despite remembering his rejection of her feelings when she had worked up the courage to tell him._

_A greater part of Rikku's mind reminded her of why that pain was fading though, and the irony of Paine's name wasn't lost on the girl. It was nearing the year mark since Paine had joined the Gullwings, and Rikku had come to the conclusion that she had developed feelings for the dark warrior, things she thought she'd never feel again after everything with Auron. She was also currently deathly afraid of losing Paine down in this cave, the thought once again kicking greater speed to her flight._

_The sounds of battle got louder as she approached, and skidding around a corner, Rikku entered into a large cavern, lit by several fires burning in some unidentifiable fluid near the walls. A positively immense drake stood in the center of the cave, one of it's forepaws laying cut off on the floor, blood covering half of the cavern's base. Paine stood on the far side of the cave, wielding her formidable sword in one hand, her off arm hanging uselessly at her side. She was coated in blood, hers or the fiends, it wasn't really clear. The fiend seemed to be weakening as blood flowed from it's leg, but at the same time, so was Paine. It took every ounce of self-control for Rikku to keep from screaming at the sight, not wanting to distract Paine but not the fiend. _

_Rikku felt a rage building in her that she hadn't felt since facing Sin, only this time there was no fear getting in the way. Anger boiled to the surface, abject hatred for the fiend clouding her mind of most rational thought. She could feel it burning inside of her, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the handles of her daggers with such force that she would later discover that she had slightly dented the metal. The fiend struck out with it's head, striking Paine in the side and throwing the warrior against the far wall near one of the pools of flame, the older woman sliding down to the ground without a sound, eyes closed. _

_A scream echoed through the cave, confusing the fiend as it looked down at it's unmoving foe. Rikku charged into the room, leaping up upon the fiend's back, her daggers driving down into it's shoulders with two satisfying 'thunk's. The next scream came from the drake, the monster tossing it's head and bucking about to try to dislodge the creature on it's back. Rikku held tight to her daggers, she had angled them in to prevent from being easily removed, her legs clamped around it's sides. The fiend slipped in it's own blood, falling down onto it's chest, Rikku pulling her daggers from it and slashing them across the back of it's neck. It managed to toss her from it's shoulders and she tumbled easily back to her feet, landing in front of Paine, not seeing that the warrior's eyes were open again. _

_The drake stood on it's bloody stump, letting it strike out awkwardly with it's good arm, claws hissing through the air. Rikku easily dodged, dancing to the side and slicing upwards with both daggers. A roar of pain was her reward as she severed a tendon, two of it's toes curling uselessly. It's huge head struck downwards, jaws agape as it tried to bite the small thief. Rikku slid below it's neck, the tip of her dagger digging into it's neck just above the collarbone, a snap and a roar showing that she managed to break bone. Her chest was coated in the fiend's blood, the red rage in her mind now red vision as well as some got into her eyes, drawing a string of curses from the Al-bhed as it stung. She refused to close her eyes, rolling out from below it as it tried to crush her below it's weight. Slipping in the blood on the ground, she cried out as it's claws dragged down her back, lurching forward and feeling her own blood mingling with it's. A teeny part of her mind hoped that it wasn't a poisonous fiend as she twisted around just in time to see it's head coming down at her. Dodging to the side, she brought both daggers up to bear, stabbing one squarely into the beasts eye, the other striking down as it shrieked in pain, the sound echoing through the cave and stabbing into Rikku's mind. Abruptly, the sound was cut off, a dull, wet thud as the severed head fell to the ground with something of a splat. The body stood for a moment, teetering back and forth before it fell with a thundering crash onto it's side, the soft hiss of pyreflies leaving the body following as it dissolved. _

_Her shoulders heaving as she struggled for breath, Rikku stood and watched the fiend fade away to nothingness. "Just once, I want a trophy from these fayth damned things." She scowled, wiping ineffectually at her eyes with the back of her hand, dropping her daggers to the floor of the cave with dual clanks as the stinging pain rocketed through her head, causing her to drop to her knees. "Vilg, vilg, vilg." (Fuck, fuck, fuck.)_

_"Rikku?" Paine's voice was shaky and weak, but to the thief, it was one of the most beautiful sounds in all of Spira. _

_"Paine?" Rikku opened her eyes again, cursing as she found her vision cloudy. "Are you okay?"_

_"I've been worse, I'm...great fayth, Rikku!" Paine just clearly caught sight of the blood soaked thief, a dark blurry shape detaching itself from the wall and moving over to her, Paine having to somewhat crawl. "What's yours and what's the fiends?"_

_Rikku shrugged a bit, hissing lightly at the stinging that sent down her back. She had been in worse pain in her life, but this, this was like a thousand small superheated needles dragging over her skin and stabbing into her eyes. "I think most of it's from the drake. Can you stand?" Rikku stood, fumbling a little before finding her daggers, the motion not lost on the warrior._

_"No...you can't see well, can you?" Rikku felt Paine's hand lightly touch her thigh and she turned towards it, reaching down and resting her hand over Paine's._

_"Just from the blood in my eyes, once I wash them out I'll be fine." The cave went dark as Rikku closed her eyes again, only a little flickering light from the fires visible behind her closed lids. She crouched down next to Paine. "Here, put your arms over my shoulders, I'll carry you out on my back." _

_"Can you.."_

_"Yes."_

_Paine sighed lightly and wrapped her arms about Rikku's neck, using what strength she had to help the smaller girl stand. Rikku was half doubled over as she reached back, hooking her arms behind Paine's legs and holding the warrior up. "I'll guide you."_

_"Good, cause the other option is me blindly stumbling through the cave and hitting things." Rikku turned her head slightly so Paine could see the slight smirk, which also let her see that Rikku was just barely covering the fact that she was in pain, likely from something other than the blood in her eyes. Paine leaned her head back a little and glanced down between their bodies. The fiend's blood was darker red than Rikku's, so she was quite easily able to tell that Rikku's back was coated with her own, and spy the claw marks._

_"Rikku..."_

_"It doesn't hurt that much, Paine. Heh..." Rikku mimicked Paine's voice for a moment. "I've been worse." The ache in Rikku's heart slowly throbbed, soothed by the knowledge that Paine was safe, thanks to her, and she started the long, painful walk back to the Celsius.  
_ _

* * *

_

A soft touch against her forehead began to draw Rikku from her dreams, the echoing terror and sense of fear from the memory of nearly losing Paine to the drake that day slowly fading as consciousness returned. "...little thief." She became aware at the end of something Paine said, furrowing her brow and shifting a little, gasping softly as she disturbed her arm.

"Buh?" She managed to say, her eyes opening to the dim light of the approaching dawn. For the barest of moments she wondered if she saw Paine blushing, deciding it was nothing more than the red light from the rising sun.

"Rikku...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Paine faintly stroked her fingers along Rikku's good arm as the blond girl shook her head.

"No, it's okay. Bad dream anyway."

"Oh?"

"Yeah...remember that time about half a year ago when we had split up in those caves, and that drake attacked you?"

Paine furrowed her brow for a moment, glancing up to the horizon as she thought, before blinking lightly. "The big poisonous one that nearly made you go blind? Yeah, I remember..."

"Yeah, the one that also nearly paralyzed you? Stupid pycdynt." (bastard) Rikku reached up to hold Paine's hand in hers, her eyes shining with a sudden clarity. "I was...I never told you how scared I was of losing you that day."

This time Paine did blush, the soft pink dusting over her cheeks. She threaded her fingers with Rikku's, squeezing softly. "If...if it was anything like how I felt when we were out in the boat looking for you, I think I can say that I understand the feeling.

The silence that fell was heavy like the fog that developed in the cool morning air, ruby lost amid emerald as the two looked to each other, both seeking answers to the question they were too afraid to ask. Nothing in her training had prepared Paine to help her find the right words, while Auron's rejection sang loudly in Rikku's mind and stirring up fears of forever altering their relationship for the worse.

As the sun rose over the horizon, casting it's warm rays over the sand, both Paine and Rikku opened their mouths to speak at the same time.

"Rikku, I..."

"Paine, I..."

"..." Each paused, holding her breath while waiting for the other to continue. Paine was lost in the swirls of Rikku's eyes, wondering if that was the reason for them, while Rikku herself was entranced by the shine of Paine's, thinking that no ruby ever stolen could compare to the sight. Each was about to speak simultaneously, as these things are wont to happen, when they were interrupted by a sharp scream that caused them both to jump, Yuna leaping to her feet and stumbling back towards the water, one hand over her mouth while she pointed towards the center of the island with the other.

"Great fayth!"

* * *

Authors Note: Bwehehehe. I feel a little evil. But it's such a -good- kind of evil. :D Heaps and loads of thanks to my reviewers, you're the ones who give me inspiration to continue to write on this, and keep me going. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Already working on the next! 


	5. Pain and the Past

**Disclaimer: Names and characters belong to SquareEnix. Story is mine.**

**Summary: A look at the developing relationship between Rikku and Paine, and the dynamics therein. Shoujo-Ai, liberties taken with the original storyline.**

**Note: This chapter is a little dark. Still within rating, just giving warning.**

* * *

"Great fayth!" Yuna muffled her second scream, crouching down and clenching her eyes closed, keeping her hand over her mouth. 

"Dammit Yuna, what the hell?" Paine twisted to look to where Yuna had been pointing as Rikku tried to sit up a bit better and see herself. The already pale woman went a lighter shade as she spied what it was that caused Yuna to react in such a fashion. "…oh…"

Rikku felt a twinge of worry at seeing Paine's reaction, managing to prop herself up with her good arm and look over the warrior's shoulder. Her eyes widened and she lightly bit her lip, a shudder flowing through her.

The stand of trees wasn't very large, much easier to see in the daylight than it was in the dim firelight. The trees were knotted and gnarly, bent from growing under the buffeting of the ocean winds and storms. A few sparse grasses grew about the base of the trunks, a thick, odd-looking vine winding around as well. None of this was so unusual, but what was higher up off the ground was. Strung up with the vines and pieces of wire were the corpses of several beings, set up in a rather macabre scene, as if reenacting a battle. Four bodies, dressed in Al-bhed style clothing were set up so they were facing off against a Ronso, Guado, and two Yevonites, all with weapons drawn and in a stage of attack. A few pyre flies floated among the corpses as they swayed slightly in the wind.

"That's…not normal." Rikku broke the silence, her eyes locked on the Al-bhed, disturbed by what the scene represented almost more than the bodies themselves. She noted that despite the likely humid location of the island, the corpses looked like the bodies occasionally found in the desert during digs, dried and stiff.

Yuna turned around and faced the water, and began to talk to the communicator, trying to get Buddy or Shinra online, her eyes still clenched closed. Paine blinked a few times and shook her head. "I've never seen anything like that."

"It's like it's some sort of…snapshot? Of the things that happened in the past. A disturbing memorial to something, but why way out here where there's nothing? Paine, help me stand." Rikku bit her lower lip as she pushed herself up further.

"Why?" Paine didn't try to keep Rikku down, standing as she lifted the thief to her feet. Her eyes looked over Rikku, a little dismayed to see that the suns light didn't do much to help improve the way the girls' injuries looked.

"I want to see it closer…" Rikku took a few steps towards the center of the island.

"Don't go near it!" Yuna spun about and ran in front of Rikku, holding her arms out as she faced her cousin, tears in her eyes. Rikku blinked and stepped back once, bumping lightly into Paine, who automatically rested her hands at Rikku's side to steady her.

"Yunie? I know it's not exactly the nicest thing to see, but I want to see who did it and if there's a sign of why someone did it…"

"No! I know who did it, and when we leave we have to set fire to this island." Yuna was visibly shaking at this point.

Paine narrowed her eyes slightly. "Yuna, we should at least bury them, or you should do a sending, you're still a summoner even if the aeons are gone, setting the island on fire is a little extreme…"

Yuna shook her head, taking Rikku's good hand in hers and looking to her with pleading eyes, back and forth between her and Paine. "No, there's nothing that I can do, a sending wouldn't work, and it might make things worse. Please, let's just get in the raft and get away from here a little?"

Rikku frowned, looking irritated and exhausted. "Yuna, I'm not moving until you at least tell me why this is making you so upset!" Her expression softened as a choked sob came from the dark haired girl, and she squeezed Yuna's hand. "Yunie, please?" She leaned back against Paine slightly.

"I…it's…it's not something that's done anymore, and it hadn't been done for years. Part of my training as a summoner was to look for these, and destroy them. They were something that even the church was against, even though it had been the idea of a counsel so long ago." She let go of Rikku's hand and sank down to her knees, shivering and wrapping her arms around herself. Rikku leaned heavily against Paine, murmuring to the warrior, who helped the thief sit, settling behind her herself.

"What are they?" Paine asked, looking up to the center of the island again. Death wasn't a stranger to her, but this particular thing was. Rikku stayed silent, but reached out and took Yuna's hand in hers.

"Curses. The people who made them knew that the Al-bhed traveled, and believed that these would haunt them, or keep them from settling somewhere." She squeezed Rikku's hand, not looking up from her lap, and Rikku scowled a little, glancing up at the trees again.

"So they murdered innocent people and strung them up in trees?" Rikku narrowed her eyes. The cruelties of the old church of Yevon were far from unknown by her, but this was a new one for even her.

Yuna nodded lightly. "The Al-bhed were killed on sight back when this was in place. The others in the scene were usually volunteers, actually. The Ronso eventually stopped being involved in this, and when one of the more pacifistic leaders who preached forgiveness as a method to change them instead of being so violent came into power, these were outlawed and commanded that they be destroyed. All summoners were taught to destroy these with fire when found." She reached up and ran her fingers through her hair. "Trying to perform a sending would be bad. I was told it would awaken some type of ancient fiend that had a habit of settling below these. If you went near it Rikku, you might have woken it up."

Paine made a light sound of disbelief. "How old is it then?"

Yuna shrugged. "Hundreds of years."

"But, I never heard of anything like this! We aren't exactly shy about talking about the horrors that Yevon did to us, and something like this would definitely have been mentioned. There's no way that all of them would have been destroyed before someone found them…" Rikku was completely confused.

"I imagine most were destroyed rather quickly, the church could work fast when they wanted to. How long was this…'program' in place, Yuna?" Paine ran a hand through her hair, faintly rubbing at her tired eyes.

"I don't know, they didn't exactly get that much into the history. It was mentioned during my training only as an aside, since it was believed that all of them were destroyed. They obviously missed one." Yuna scowled, her pretty features twisted with the expression. "It was one of the things I hated the most, the blind stupidity. I didn't…I mean, for fayth sake, I'm half Al-bhed! I just…grah." She stood up and paced towards the waters edge, jabbing at the communicator again. "Dammit Buddy, wake up."

Rikku looked towards Yuna's back for a few quiet moments, then sighed and looked back towards the trees. "Ironic in a way, then, that this island should save my life. Maybe they're making up for it, in some small way."

Paine smiled lightly. "Maybe. Shall we do as Yuna asked?" She tilted her head towards the raft, an eyebrow arched slightly.

"Eh, why not. And the burning will be like a funeral pyre, which is what we do anyway." The blond grunted lightly as she shifted to her knees and stood, leaning slightly away from Paine's touch. "I can stand, it's okay, now that I'm more awake."

Paine kept her hand at Rikku's elbow anyway. "Just because you can doesn't mean that you should."

"I'm only picking up your stubbornness."

"You certainly don't need any more of that, meddma dreav." (Little thief)

Rikku blushed lightly as she walked over to Yuna, tilting her head slightly as she caught the tail end of the conversation the gunner was having with the Celsius. "Well, if you can't pinpoint it, don't worry, there'll be a lot of smoke."

Buddy's voice sounded tinny through the little earpiece. "Hey, great idea Yuna, a signal fire will definitely be visible. Just be careful, okay? Don't need anyone else hurt in all of this."

"Sig…oh, yeah, right. Yeah, we'll be careful. Likely sit in the raft or something just incase." Yuna looked a little guilty as she spoke, and Rikku had to smile a little. "Yuna out." The communicator clicked off with an electronic beep.

"Any idea how long it'll take them to get here?" Rikku faintly bit her lower lip as she adjusted the makeshift sling of her scarf.

"Buddy said about an hour. The controls are fixed, but the strain he put on the engine yesterday broke a few things, and Brother's working on it. He'll use the auxiliary engines to guide it here." Yuna turned around with a soft sigh, looking back at the center of the island. "Anything specific you want to do in regards to the pyre?" She looked sideways to Rikku and Paine, Paine looking a little confused for a moment until she remembered the mention of the Al-bhed funeral practices earlier.

"Heh, didn't think you remembered that."

"I was there, remember."

"Not totally. Pops wouldn't let me out of his reach for a month, and I was younger than you."

Yuna disappeared for a moment in a brief flash of light, reappearing in her Black Mage dressphere. "Well, regardless, I remember. I just don't know if there were any specifics?"

Rikku shook her head before bowing towards the center of the island, her lips moving as she murmured something to soft to be heard. She turned around and walked to the raft past the still confused Paine, who was attempting to piece together what the short conversation meant without asking directly. "Nothing else. Go ahead Yunie."

Paine briefly looked as if she were going to give in and ask, but decided that the seriousness of the issue should be left as is, and that she was too tired to ask anyway. She helped Rikku into the raft and pushed it into the water, standing with the water up to her knees, holding the raft still while she turned and watched Yuna. "Careful not to wake anything up, hey Yuna? I'm not in the mood to fight anything."

Yuna smiled faintly. "That's a first. Mark that down, Rikku."

Rikku giggled lightly, looking out towards the ocean. "Noted."

Rolling her eyes, Paine crossed her arms and watched with a calm look hiding her curiosity as she watched Yuna prepare to cast Fira. Twirling her staff about, Yuna took careful aim at four points about the sides of the trees, easily launching the spell, hitting on target. Flames almost immediately started to grow as Yuna watched for a moment. Selecting four more points, she cast Fira once more, the double shot of magic quickly overtaking the trees and grasses. Thick black smoke began to rise into the sky as Yuna bowed, then turned and walked to join Rikku in the raft, changing back to gunner halfway.

Paine stood for a moment after Yuna climbed into the raft and settled herself behind Rikku, letting her cousin lean against her. The warrior's eyes traced the flames as they steadily consumed the trees and bodies within, tilting her head back and watching the smoke drift up into the calm morning sky. "Cleansing." Rikku made a sound of agreement and Paine settled herself in the raft, taking control of the engine and directing the raft a short distance away from the island before turning the engine off to save power. Silence settled on the three girls, Rikku drifting off to sleep again in Yuna's arms as Paine leaned against the side of the inflatable raft, still watching the island.

"How are you going to set her arm?" Yuna's question was so soft spoken that Paine almost didn't realize it was said for a moment.

"Me?"

"Yeah, I figure you've more experience doing it, and I'd rather not have Barkeep doing it, even if he knows medicine."

Paine arched an eyebrow as she lightly crossed her arms. "And what makes you assume I have experience with it?"

Yuna gestured a little with her free hand. "You're a warrior…this is kinda your thing, isn't it? On the pilgrimage, Auron and Lulu did everything that I couldn't. Auron because he had to on his previous pilgrimage and it was in his training, and Lulu because well, she just sort of fell into it."

Paine smiled faintly. "That motherly thing she has going on." She had met the Black Mage a few times when Rikku made them stop in Besaid while sphere hunting before Yuna joined, wanting to check in on her cousin.

Yuna smiled. "Yeah, that motherly thing. With the Celsius in such beat up state, I don't want to wait and try to get to Besaid, and this really needs to be taken care of…" Her dual colored eyes shone with worry as she looked down at Rikku.

Rubbing her forehead, Paine sighed lightly, leaning her head back and staring upwards at the sky. "Yeah, I know. I just. I don't want to be the one to cause her more pain." Her voice was soft as she spoke, words almost lost in the wind.

"How about you cast Sleep on her before? You're a little higher in the Black Magic skills than I am, I've not learned that much."

Paine blinked lightly. "That would work perfectly. It should last long enough that I get the bone set, and her wrist, and then you use Cura. That should heal it almost fully."

Yuna nodded. "She'll still have to be careful for a few days, but yes, that should do it. What did you guys do before I came?"

"Barkeep. Like you said, he has some training, and well, it was all we had now and then. If something were really serious we'd fly to Luca or Bikanel, which ever was closer. Since Shinra only figured out the dressphere abilities of the spheres we found just before you came, we didn't have the ability to change into a White Mage. Rikku had limited magic, things she learned with you I suppose, but it wasn't good enough for serious injuries. Barkeep, potions, and a fast airship." Paine stretched her legs out, glancing over to the island again for a moment.

"Oh." Yuna made a faint sound that roughly translated to 'Glad I don't have to deal with that', and fell silent again. She and Paine both looked towards the island when an echoing crash sounded from it, one of the larger trees falling, taking down anything that was left standing. Yuna sighed again and closed her eyes, turning away. "I wish we hadn't found that. I'm glad that we were able to take care of it, but, still…"

Paine didn't answer, simply continued to watch the flames as they started to die down. She sat more upright after a little bit and started the boat engine again, moving it back a little closer to the island, the current having taken them away a distance. Turning the engine off again, she tilted her head, turning and squinting at the horizon. "Here comes the Celsius."

The red airship glided up to the raft a few minutes later, Buddy and Brother at the cargo doors to help pull the raft in. It apparently took an amazing amount of self-restraint for Brother to keep from hugging Rikku to him; the two talking in such rapid fire Al-bhed that Paine could barely keep up. Yuna made an offhanded remark about how no matter how much they argued, Rikku and Brother still cared for each other, and as Brother actually picked Rikku up despite her protests, and carried her to the cabin, Paine had to agree, even if she did feel a little irritated that it wasn't her carrying the thief upstairs.

As they followed, Buddy filled Yuna and Paine in on the repairs and their suspicions. Shinra had gotten in contact with Kilika and found that some New Yevon troops had come down from the temple a few times into the city, and Dona immediately suspected that it was one of them who had sabotaged the ship in revenge for the Gullwings giving the sphere to the Youth League and essentially joining their 'side'. He and Brother weren't completely convinced that it was sabotage, surprisingly; they had had a few similar issues with the airship when it was first salvaged, but Shinra was positive that something had been fiddled with. Instead of arguing with the kid, Buddy and Brother settled for simply getting the airship as repaired as they could, working through the night and not taking any breaks so that they could get to the island and get the three girls.

The rode to the cabin in silence after Buddy got off at the bridge, Paine changing into her Black Mage dressphere as they did, Yuna into White Mage. Stepping out, they heard Rikku and Brother still talking at a fast pace, a thrown pillow soon chasing Brother down from the upper level of the cabin. "Yuna! You fix Rikku, yes?" The lanky man walked up to Paine and Yuna, Barkeep and Oaka sitting at the bar and looking up towards the girl's sleeping area as Paine walked past Brother and towards the stairs.

Yuna nodded, holding her staff up a little. "We will Brother, don't worry." She gave the pilot a smile, the unusually subdued Brother nodding and simply leaving the cabin.

"Mish Paine, Mish Yooona, do you need help, yesh?" Barkeep gestured about a little with his large hands.

Paine shook her head. "No, we got this." She didn't look to the others as she slipped quietly up the stairs, pulling her hat off to lower her profile, peering up over the edge towards the beds. Rikku was lying on her bed, eyes clenched closed as she grimaced in pain, her hand holding tightly to the sheets. Paine could only figure that Brother had jostled something painfully, and had to smother the bit of anger that drew up. Lifting her staff, she gestured lightly in the air and spoke the words needed, Rikku blinking her eyes open for a moment before the Sleep spell overcame her and quickly sent her into a relaxed state of unconsciousness.

Following Paine up the stairs, Yuna nodded lightly as she saw Rikku fall asleep again as Paine shifted back to her usual warrior self, quickly walking over to the bed. She faintly bit her lower lip as she untied Rikku's scarf from about her neck and arm, feeling where the bones were moved to now that she didn't have to worry about causing too much pain, even though Rikku occasionally grimaced.

"Tyssed." (Dammit) Paine swore lightly, gently shifting Rikku about so she could get into a good position.

"That bad?" Yuna stood at the foot of the bed, holding her staff tightly.

"Yes." Paine closed her eyes for a few moments, taking a few deep breaths. "You might want to turn around, Yuna."

Yuna bit her lower lip for a moment and nodded, turning around. She quickly decided she was glad she did as she was able to hear the audible grinding of bone, grimacing as even through the spell Rikku still cried out lightly, and Paine cursed again, a darker series of words. "Is it okay?"

"Just a moment." Paine felt like her heart was being ripped out as she pulled at Rikku's arm again, causing Rikku to whimper in pain. "E's cunno, meddma dreav." (I'm sorry, little thief) She murmured lightly. Even though she knew this was needed, she still hated the fact that she was the one making it hurt. Rikku's wrist was easier and brought no reaction from the girl, and Paine let out the breath she was holding. "Okay, quickly, huh?" Paine stood from the bed and started to pace a bit along the foot of the beds, flexing her hands into fists and releasing them again, her jaw clenched.

Nodding, Yuna turned and moved to take Paine's place, reaching to brush a bit of hair from Rikku's forehead, leaning down and murmuring something to quiet for Paine to hear before she started to cast the needed spell. "I've got you. This'll help."

Paine clenched the railing as she heard Rikku groan softly while the healing white light sank into her, the warrior taking a few controlled breaths. Yuna apparently put a fair bit of energy into the spell, the girl staggering back and sitting heavily on her bed when she finished. Paine turned, raising an eyebrow slightly as she glanced at Yuna before moving over to Rikku's side. "You okay, Yuna?"

"Yeah…just…put a lot into that. I think…I'm going to take a bath." Yuna's voice was thick with exhaustion as she dropped her staff heavily onto the bed. She stood and swayed for a moment, then shuffled to the end of the loft and into the bathroom, an audible click as she locked the door, a sure sign of having every intent of using the bathroom for a long time.

Paine smiled lightly before she sat lightly on the bed next to Rikku, letting out a soft sigh of relief as she looked over the now much better looking thief. She closed her eyes, taking up Rikku's good hand and leaning down over her, lightly resting her forehead to Rikku's shoulder. "Don't ever scare me like that again. I need to figure out how to say how I feel…" She lifted her head and glanced towards the bathroom door, and figuring that Yuna was going to be in there for a few hours at least, Paine took a deep breath before she lightly shifted Rikku to the side a little, and lay down next to her, taking the Al-bhed into her arms.

Rikku shifted a little in the spell-induced sleep, curling closer to Paine, sending a small thrill through the warrior. Paine tried to keep her eyes open, wanting to stay alert in case any came up the stairs, or Yuna left the bathroom, but try as she might, soon enough, she joined Rikku in dreamland, the two sleeping in each others arms.

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Authors Note: I've had a few family issues, and I didn't expect to get this done so soon, but my muse distracted me enough that I was able to get it typed up. Thank you again and always for the reviews. Thanks for reading!  



	6. Delays

**Disclaimer: I don't own FinalFantasyX-2, I'm just using the characters for my own uses. **

**Summary: A look at Rikku and Paine, and the evolving dynamic's between the two, taking a few creative liberties with the storyline but generally following the story.**

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The first of Rikku's senses to return to her was her hearing, the off key singing of someone, soon identified as Yuna, coming from somewhere behind her, sounding a little muffled. She decided that her cousin must be singing in the bathtub, internally smirking at the thought that despite Yuna's usually wonderful singing voice, she still sounded bad in the bathroom. Rikku's eyes felt heavy, so she ignored the want to open them for the moment, instead focusing on the feeling and smells that came to her at about the same time. It certainly wasn't her pillow she was curled against, the softness of a different sort, with a second texture mixed in. This confused Rikku, and she wasn't quite able to tell what it was. The scent of the sea was strong, a fresh scent mingled with the smell of a warm breeze, a familiar, comforting smell. Her sleep confused mind couldn't put anything together no matter how she try, so with a soft sigh she forced her eyes to open, squinting at the light.

A blush quickly rose to her cheeks as she found herself looking directly at leather clad cleavage, the unmistakable silver cross clasp quickly identifying her 'pillow' as Paine. Rikku briefly let herself be a little mesmerized by the slow rise and fall of Paine's breathing, her eyes eventually slowly traveling upwards. Granted, she had been this close to the warrior yesterday on the island, but she was also in a lot of pain, and didn't have the opportunity to enjoy the view, so to speak, and was taking the opportunity to do so now as her eyes took in little details. The curve of her shoulder, the line of her neck and jaw, and finally, Rikku's emerald eyes settled on Paine's face. She smiled at the peaceful expression of the sleeping warrior, marveling at how gentle she appeared. Rikku knew that under the battle hardened exterior was a kind, gentle soul, and she was determined to work her way through and expose it back to the light of day so it could be seen other than just when Paine was asleep.

Rikku shifted her head to gently rest it on Paine's shoulder, watching the slow pulse of her relaxed heartbeat, admiring Paine's pale skin. She brought her arm up, her hand shaking a little as her arm was still rather sore, glancing at her wrist and arm as she realized that it was healed, for the most part. Flexing a little, she nodded in approval and turned her eyes back to Paine, bringing her hand down to softly rest on the warrior's breastbone, eying the different skin tones. Her skin was always tanned, naturally darker like the rest of her tribe, a little moreso from time spent outside. Paine, by comparison, was paler than Yuna, but still a healthy color. Rikku idly wondered if it was connected to her silvery hair and red eyes, but decided that she didn't care, liking it either way. She furrowed her brow slightly as she noticed the bit of redness at Paine's collarbone and neck, glancing up at the woman's face, a blush quickly coating her cheeks as her eyes met Paine's wide open ones, she blushing as well. Both women looked initially like they wanted to move away and pretend nothing happened, but the longer neither moved, the less of an urge that became.

Paine was the first to find her voice, her tone soft. "Uh, hey...how's your arm feeling?"

Rikku reflexively glanced down at her arm still resting across Paine's chest, her blush growing a little darker and heating her ears. Shaking slightly, she gently clenched her hand into a fist. "Still sore, and kind of shaky, but a thousand times better." A thought struck her, and she quickly looked up again. "You set it, didn't you?"

Paine arched an eyebrow smoothly. "Yes, but why did you think that?"

"Because Barkeep wouldn't have thought to have someone cast Sleep on me first."

"You noticed that, huh?"

Rikku laughed lightly, a sound that made Paine get a little thrill inside, so happy to hear it again, though she kept it from her expression. "I've been running around Spira for a while, Paine, I've had all manner of things cast on me. You get to learn what a few are just from the first touch of magic before they take affect."

Turning her gaze upwards for a few moments, Paine considered this, then nodded lightly. "Yes, I suppose that's true."

Faintly biting her lower lip, Rikku fell silent for a moment, then leaned up and softly kissed Paine's cheek, smiling inwardly as she felt the shiver it sent through Paine, who managed to not show too much of a reaction to this, despite her cheeks blushing a little darker. "Thank you."

Paine shifted about, suddenly having lost most of her earlier resolve. "Eh, you'd do the same for me afterall."

Rikku shrugged slightly, faintly grimacing at the motion, and lightly, reluctantly, moved from Paine's side, feeling the woman's discomfort and not wishing to be the cause of it. "Maybe, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't thank you anyway..."

Paine sat up and adjusted her shawl a little, the blush still on her cheeks, but slowly fading. She lightly cleared her throat, and looked back to Rikku. Her thoughts were in turmoil, Rikku able to see this in the shine of Paine's eyes. Glancing away again as she stood from the bed to stand next to it, she cleared her throat lightly once more. "You're welcome."

Flexing her arm again to work out the stiffness, Rikku nodded lightly, her eyes trained down on her hand as she flexed it into a fist and relaxed it again. "..I knew you'd search for me."

"Well of course, Yuna's your cousin afterall..." Paine trailed off as Rikku shook her head vehemently and looked up, her eyes briefly flashing.

"Not Yuna. You, Paine. I knew that you'd search for me." The conviction in her voice was strong, her gaze unwavering as she focused on the warrior.

Paine paused, her first words caught in her throat. She cursed inwardly as her instincts told her to turn and run, to not say anything, to just go. But she had to admit to herself, that if she did such a thing, she'd hate herself forever for letting the opportunity pass. So instead, she simply nodded lightly, trying to relax her tense muscles. "Yes."

Rikku, an expert in running away from dangerous situations, could tell that Paine wanted to go, a little triumphant moment for her as she watched the warrior decide it was better to stay. She pushed back her own nervousness as she glanced over at the door to the bathroom, shifting forward on the bed to sit on the edge of it in front of Paine. Reaching up, she gently took Paine's hand in both of hers, looking down at the glove that covered it. Faintly biting her lower lip, she slid the glove away, Paine's hand shaking faintly before she lightly clenched it into a fist. Rikku slipped her fingers between Paine's and gently squeezed, closing her eyes for a few moments. Hoping almost beyond reason that she knew the answer already, she rested her forehead to the back of the warriors strong hand before asking. "Why?"

For the second time in as many days, Paine felt the world slow to nearly a stop, this time triggered by Rikku's words instead of the sight of her falling. She reflexively squeezed Rikku's hand tightly, using the girl as an anchor, as a reason to not run. "I...I couldn't bear the thought of having to let you go." She raised her other hand up and gently touched Rikku's lips as she looked up, silencing the question she could see in the shining emerald eyes. "I...fayth, this isn't easy for me, Rikku..." Paine knelt down next to the bed, keeping Rikku's hands held in hers.

Rikku nodded lightly, softly kissing the back of Paine's bare hand. "I know.." She dared not move or do anything further, a part of her feeling like she was approaching a wounded animal that might snap at any moment and bite her.

Paine glanced up as she heard Yuna shuffling around a bit more in the bathroom, and the door to the cabin open, Buddy speaking with Oaka and Barkeep. She faintly bit her lower lip for a moment before regaining her stoic appearance, her voice low. "Buddy said we were going to stop in Besaid so he and Brother can take a boat to Luca and get other items to fix the airship, and we can recuperate from all...this. Can..can we talk there?" She took a deep breath. "Please, Rikku.."

Softly pressing her lips to the back of Paine's knuckles again, Rikku closed her eyes, then nodded, glancing over towards the railing and glaring at Buddy's voice. "Yeah. This isn't going to be a short conversation, is it?"

Paine offered a soft smile as she stood, taking her glove and slipping it back on, shaking her head. "No, I don't think so." She smirked, and Rikku knew things were alright. "If you weren't so lazy..."

"Hey! You cast -Sleep- on me!"

"You complain as much as Brother sometimes, you think I wanted to hear you?" Paine's eyes shone with dual relief and a tiny bit of worry over what was to come, but she wasn't about to pass over an opportunity to tease Rikku.

"What? Why you..." Rikku grabbed a pillow and tossed it at Paine, the tall woman chuckling as she easily dodged the soft projectile, and turned to head down the stairs.

"I'm glad you're okay, Rikku. Don't be so clumsy next time." Paine smirked as she got hit in the back with another pillow, and kept going down into the bar. Buddy looked up towards her as she descended the stairs, opening his mouth to say something before Yuna's excited squeal caught both of their attention as the Gunner ran across the top level of the cabin and over to Rikku, Paine shaking her head as the cousins started to babble to each other, Yuna crying as she expressed her relief at seeing Rikku awake and okay, Rikku trying to get her cousin to relax.

Buddy shook his head and smiled, offering Paine a piece of the bread he had. "That's a nice sound to hear again, huh?"

Paine waved off the offering, her face having switched back to her usual stoic and unemotional state, though Buddy could see the difference in her eyes. "Yeah, it is, though now we'll all get headaches again..." She turned and walked out of the cabin, leaving the navigator wondering.

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The trip to Besaid was almost agonizingly slow, the ship not able to get airborne and having to travel by water. Yuna was on the verge of driving Rikku nuts, a role reversal, the gunner seeming to have felt that Rikku's injury was somehow her fault, constantly asking Rikku if her arm was okay, if she needed anything, and generally driving the young Al-bhed nuts. She would tell Yuna time and again that she was alright, the young girl usually being eternally patient with the former summoner, her familial and guardian instincts strong, but even she reached a point where she had to get away some. Rikku had even taken up going onto the Bridge more often, helping Brother and Buddy with fixing the pilots chair, Brother having to take over Rikku's co-pilot station to drive the ship in the meantime. Yuna would hover nearby, looking a little lost as the three Al-bhed would jabber on in their native language, and Shinra would ignore everyone, leaving Yuna watching the scenery pass through the great glass windows at the front of the Bridge.

Paine would quietly watch, as she was wont to do, her attention shifting between Rikku, and Yuna. It struck her that perhaps she should talk to Yuna about things of the more...romanic side, knowing that love really was the main reason she was on the airship in the first place, and Paine was woefully inexperienced in this particular realm. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she likely shouldn't, since there was no way that she could talk about her dilemma in a vague enough way that wouldn't clue Yuna in to the fact that Paine was enamored with her cousin. She didn't know how Yuna felt about two women pairing, despite the very brief conversation on the island, let alone her cousin, one of the few family members that she had left, and she also didn't know how Rikku would feel about her talking about it.

With a faint sigh, Paine turned and walked from the Bridge, pushing the button and waiting for the lift to arrive, crossing her arms over her chest as she resisted the urge to be irritated with the machinia's slowness. She knew that everything on the ship was working a little slow due to the engine trouble, making the already sluggish lift even more so. When it arrived, she pushed the button for the Deck, leaning back against the lift wall and closing her eyes, clearing her mind of thought as well as she could as the lift brought her to the Deck.

Stepping out into the cool afternoon air, Paine walked slowly out into the smooth deck surface. She couldn't help but look down at the deep wound her sword had inflicted on the metal that day that Rikku fell, her eyes trailing over to the two shallow marks where Rikku's daggers caused the metal to scream. Crouching down, she reached out and softly touched the marks from the daggers. Almost every day since getting Rikku back, she came up to the deck, trying to see if there was anything she could have done differently, to see if it really was out of her control. Logic and the evidence proved that she had indeed done all that she could, but despite all that, Paine couldn't shake the feeling of guilt that still prevailed, and it was driving her nuts. She was supposed to have control of her emotions, not them having control of her.

"Dammit, do I love her or do I just feel guilty when I can't protect her from getting hurt? And is that caused by me loving her or just being protective of a partner? And if it's just a partner thing, why don't I feel like that for Yuna?" Paine made a sound of frustration, running her fingers through her hair, standing and pacing towards the end of the airship, standing at the side of the Gull that was perched at the front of the ship, resting her hand against the birds beak. She tried to think back to a time where she was as angry with a fiend for hurting Yuna, and try as she might, the only times that she felt anything more than what one would upon seeing a friend get hurt was when both Yuna and Rikku would be poisoned or taken down by something. That wasn't to say that she didn't care about Yuna as a friend, she would grow quite aggravated whenever the former summoner got hurt, but it didn't affect her as much as she could see that it would affect Rikku.

"Bah." Paine ran her fingers through her hair again, then looked down at her hand. She could still 'feel' where Rikku had kissed it, smirking faintly to herself as the brief, childlike consideration had gone through her head where she thought about never washing it again, but quickly went past that idea. Sliding off her glove, she touched her knuckles with her fingertips, her mind filling in the image of Rikku sitting in front of her and holding her hand. "I'm acting like a little kid...no...not a little kid, like some..some..."

With a huff, Paine sat down hard on the deck. "..Like some lovestruck fool." Pulling her glove back on, she sulked under the shade of the gulls wing, feeling the occasional cool spray of the ocean waves as they were splashed up by the motions of the ship. It had been a very long time since Paine had let her emotion get a hold of her, and she reflected on the reasons why. Being hurt, losing control, worrying bout someone other than herself, they were all things that bothered the silver-haired woman almost beyond reason. Her childhood wasn't rough, at least, what she remembered of it. There was a block, a wall, a period of time that she just couldn't access. She knew that before it, she was a relatively normal kid, at least as normal as one could be in Sin-era Spira, lived in a small village. But quite abruptly, her memories were of a solitary life, a rougher life, and she was as she was now, in control, and safe behind her walls.

"But walls can make for lonely places." Paine quietly mused, glancing about the empty deck. She wanted to talk to someone, but there was no one on this ship she could. Maybe she could get in contact with someone via the sphere network, but the question would then become 'who'. She thought to the limited people in her life who she might be able to talk to about such things, and came up with a list of approximately three. Nooj, who would be a bad choice, just out of principal. He was too stoic, and come on, Leblanc? His taste sure was questionable. Baralai, he was another no. He was likely irritated that they had given the sphere to Nooj, and he occasionally was -way- too observant and could pick out things about her that she much rather that people didn't know. Gippal, then. Paine started to laugh, quickly silencing it behind her hand and glancing back behind her, not wanting anyone to hear her laugh like that. Besides all of that, no one on the ship knew that she knew them, and she wanted to keep it that way.

Paine made another aggravated sound and stood, turning and walking closer to the middle of the Deck, drawing her sword and swinging it around some. It certainly wasn't something that she wanted to do alone, but like everything else, she supposed that it was the only way to do it. A faint smile drifted across her features as she thought of how, if things went right, she wouldn't be quite so alone anymore.

Now if only the ship would hurry up and get to Besaid, she could hurry up and stall some more once there.

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Author Note:

Sorry that this took so long to update. Hopefully the Drabbles have been enough to help tide people over (check them out if you haven't and like my work, those will likely be updated more often, and deal with little snippets from Rikku and Paine) but I'm still sorry for taking so long. If you know me, you know how crazy my life has been, but hopefully I can continue to work on this, and people will continue to enjoy it. Thank you for your patience!


	7. Interlude: Momentary Lapse of Reason

Sorry for the long wait for this. I've lost track of my muse, and only just recently found her again in music and a new keyboard that makes happy light clicky noises. This popped into my head, so I thought I'd submit it as a little promise that I am writing again. Thank you to those who've watched me and this story recently, along with giving me such nice reviews, you've helped push my muse back out of hiding.

**Disclaimer: I don't own FinalFantasyX-2, I'm just using the characters for my own uses. **

**Summary: A look at Rikku and Paine, and the evolving dynamic's between the two, taking a few creative liberties with the storyline but generally following the story. **

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She felt herself slipping, falling, tumbling toward an edge she didn't expect. It was wrong. It wasn't expected. Things weren't supposed to be this way. She was losing control. She needed her control. To fall would cause pain. To cause pain would be to fail. To fail was unacceptable. Things were supposed to be safe with these people. She chose them because with the personalities already on board, she could slip to the background and be overlooked. She could be safe. Her partner was going to be a woman, nothing should happen, right? Who'd pay attention to the normal Spiran woman in the background when you could instead clamor for an interview with one of the High Summoners former Guardians? And even better, later on, the High Summoner herself? Safe, that's what it was supposed to be.

Then dreams began. Golden hair haunting her thoughts. The gradual longing for closeness. Pushed aside with snide comments, 'serious' teasing, forcing her face not to smile. Safe. It was meant to be safe.

Things were not going to plan. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. She didn't want to feel like this. She thought that she couldn't feel like this, not since...

What made her feel like this? It was her fault. It had to be. Constantly poking, constantly prying, constantly trying to be there. Chipping at her facade, trying to break through. It was her fault, the thief. Of course, that's what it was. It was her fault, she wasn't weak. The conversation in the cabin, that was a momentary lapse of reason, thats what it was. The feelings when she fell, it was just concern for a friend, it had to be.

Right?

That's all it had to be. Then why wasn't she believing herself when she told herself the truth, that it was just a bit of temporary insanity brought on by the stress? Why couldn't she accept it?

Just a momentary lapse of reason.

That's what it had to be.

Once the ship reached Besaid, once everyone had a chance to calm down, once she was out of the stuffy cabin air and back into the fresh sea air on the island, then things would clear. Then things would calm. Then she'd stop falling. Then she'd be back in control. Then she'd not feel it anymore. Clarity would return, the dreams would stop, the edge would go away, solid ground would return.

She hoped.


	8. Words Not Said

**Disclaimer: I don't own FinalFantasyX-2, I'm just using the characters for my own uses. **

**Summary: A look at Rikku and Paine, and the evolving dynamic's between the two, taking a few creative liberties with the storyline but generally following the story. **

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Rikku stood quietly at the door to the deck, looking out over it's surface. She hadn't been up there since the day she fell, her arm giving a small pang of pain at the memory. She had seen Paine come back down from being on the deck, and the idea to go out there had begun to eat at her mind, finally driving her to reluctantly enter the lift and press the button. As hard as it was to admit to herself, she knew she was afraid, now. There was just something much more personal about falling from the deck that scared her senseless, when one would think that she should be more afraid of some of the fiends out there which had nearly killed her multiple times over the last three years. She tried to rationalize it like her previous fear of the Thunder Plains, it wasn't something she could control. If a fiend attacked her, she could control her reaction, either fighting it, or running. But the lightning she could only try desperately to dodge, and it struck at her without her doing anything to it. Falling from the deck wasn't something she could have controlled, it happened like a lightning strike, with little warning, and little she could do.

Chuffing lightly with a sound of irritation, she turned and looked out over the water, tearing her eyes away from the red deck in front of her. If it was just like the Thunder Plains, shouldn't she be able to confront her fear and get over it? She asked herself that a lot lately, and the general answer was that it took her ten years to get over her fear of the lightning. "Don't want it to be another ten years..." She mumbled to herself.

"What?" A voice spoke from behind her, causing Rikku to jump and twist about, pressing her back to the side of the alcove the door sat in. "You're losing your touch, Rikku." Paine smirked at the spooked girl, moving past her and onto the deck itself.

Rikku scowled some, mostly at herself for not paying enough attention and allowing the usually noisy lift to come up behind her. "You're too much like a wraith, you know that?" She stuck her tongue out at Paine, crossing her arms over her chest in a fashion that made the warrior arch an eyebrow. Paine recognized that stance, it was one she frequently took to protect herself, to give an air of 'leave me alone', that she knew worked well. On her at least. On Rikku she had to bite the inside of her cheek to not smile, she didn't want to smile. She felt too much like she was losing control, and came up here to try to get fresh air, she didn't expect to find the person who was pushing her to the edge to be there.

"Sure, blame me for your lack of attention." Paine retorted, turning and moving out further onto the deck, resisting the urge to look down to the weapon scars on the surface of the airship.

Rikku simply grunted in reply, keeping her arms crossed as she glared down at the deck. Paine, true to character, didn't reply or offer further conversation, and after a few minutes Rikku had to look up, looking to where the woman was. Paine had moved up behind the gull at the front of the airship, looking out over the water as the ship cruised along toward Besaid, the island group visible in the distance, about an hour away at their current pace. Rikku watched the woman's back for a moment, then sighed softly, unfolding her arms and looking down at her left hand, flexing it a little. Paine chose that moment to look back to Rikku, about to mention something about how close Besaid was, seeing the motion, and turned some toward her.

"Does your wrist still hurt?" She asked quietly, an eyebrow arched slightly. She didn't think the break there was bad, but she knew that the wrist was a lot more delicate than the arm was.

Rikku shrugged slightly, not meeting Paine's somewhat curious look. "A little. But I was messing with my daggers earlier, probably strained it a little."

"You shouldn't do that for a bit. Give it a chance to finish healing, you know that bones don't fully heal with cures." Paine quietly chastised, leaning back against the gull's tail.

Rikku smiled lightly. "Yeah, I know, I know." She ran her fingers through her bangs, brushing them back from her headband for a moment before they fell back into place. She crossed her arms again, this time around her stomach, and looked back down at the deck. Paine started to get a little worried, noticing for the first time that Rikku hadn't moved from the alcove by the door, the woman glancing down at the deck, her eyes meeting the marks that Rikku's daggers had left, a look of understanding entering her eyes. She pushed herself from the metal bird and walked forward some, stopping just a bit from the door, staying out on the deck proper itself. A part of her mind told her to be quiet, to just go inside, but she hadn't really listened to that part of her mind lately, and realized she wasn't about to now.

Paine cleared her throat slightly, causing Rikku to look up toward her again, an eyebrow raising as she noticed the warrior much closer than she was before, now. There was that slightly nervous look to Paine, much like the other night in the cabin, and Rikku felt a little twist at her heart, worry building some, only to be surprised by the question that came instead. "You're afraid to be out here, aren't you?" Paine's voice was gentle, her question soft.

Rikku's first reaction was to say no, but as she was opening her mouth to say it, she realized how she shouldn't deny what was pretty clear. Her cheeks colored softly as she looked back down to her feet, and simply nodded at first, then continued. "I just...really needed some fresh air. I know we're almost to Besaid, but."

Nodding some as she glanced back over her shoulder, Paine tilted her head some toward the front of the airship. "Yeah, you can see the islands." She closed her eyes for a moment, mentally kicking herself for the ever so intelligent words coming from her. Sighing lightly, she took another step toward Rikku, approaching her a little like she would an injured animal, holding her hand out. "Come here, huh?"

Rikku looked up sharply, first to Paine's calm expression and then down to the gloved hand held out toward her, Rikku flexing her hands some at her side. "Huh? Why? I'm fine here, I can still get fresh air."

Paine shook her head and stepped forward again. "But you won't get over being afraid if you stand there. You can't wait ten years again. That's what you were talking about when I came out before, wasn't it? That thing with lighting you used to have."

"Yeah, but..."

"No but." Paine countered, her hand shaking slightly as she reached out and just took Rikku's in hers, gently pulling at it and trying to coax the girl out from by the doorway.

Grimacing, Rikku knew that Paine was right, but that didn't mean she was just going to jump out there. When the warrior took her hand, though, she was surprised enough to be easily pulled forward, but after getting just out of the reach of the door she balked, trying to pull back a little. "Paine...I k-know it's silly, but..." Her nervousness was clear, even if the airship was on the water itself, and the water was only about thirty feet or so away.

Paine shook her head, still keeping her grip on Rikku's hand, gentle but strong. "Who said anything about it being silly? I understand." She gently pulled Rikku closer, not stepping back, trying to keep her own nervousness over what she was doing hidden, Paine not used to being the one to comfort, she usually left that up to Yuna.

Flexing her free hand repeatedly into a fist at her side, Rikku all but stared at Paine's neck, not wanting to look anywhere that would show where she was. An especially large wave sent the airship rocking a little as it kept on, Paine hiding a grimace at the motion as she knew it would only scare Rikku a little more, and she was right, only Rikku didn't react by pulling back as she expected, instead she threw herself at the warrior, clinging to the bottom of Paine's shawl as she hid her face against her shoulder. "P-please don't let me fall again!"

For another time in the frustrating week, Paine found herself almost completely unable to move or speak, thrust into a situation she had no experience with, another dangerous one where she knew what she did would have far reaching consequences. Looking down at the shorter girl pressed against her, she felt that tug at her heart again, the one that made her feel like she was losing control. Drawing in a slow, steadying breath, she brought her arms up to gently wrap around Rikku, one hand resting up on her shoulder, the other holding about her waist. "If you fall, we both fall." She stated, fairly simply, lightly flexing and tensing her shoulders to keep from shaking.

Rikku started to cry as she stayed pressed against Paine, her expression shifting between looking like she loathed herself for how she felt and like a frightened young girl, tightening her hold a little more as Paine spoke, a lurching felt in her stomach like it dropped from her, the woman's words only making her cry a little harder. She started to babble, a natural reaction to her fears. "I keep dreaming about it! Seeing your face...the fall, the water, the cold, the dark. I didn't dream about lightning like this! Not even when we were there on the pilgrimage, I was just terrified out of my mind then, I didn't dream about it, it didn't torment me! I keep seeing your face an it moving away as I fall, I keep seeing that, it won't leave me alone!"

Rikku's tears first stabbed at Paine's heart as she tightened her grip on the shorter woman some, faintly biting her lower lip. As she started to babble, Paine closed her eyes for a moment, ducking her head down slightly as she continued to take deeper, calming breaths, fending off the threatening overwhelming emotions that lingered in the background, reacting to how upset Rikku was. "It's...it's alright." She surprised herself at how sure of those words she sounded. "It's okay Rikku. It was frightening, and...I've dreamed of it some too. But it won't happen again, and in the extremely small chance that it does, I go with you." She kicked herself mentally, she was saying too much, talking too much. But her words had a calming affect on Rikku, who leaned back a little and looked up to Paine, tears bright in her eyes.

Searching the face of the woman above her, Rikku felt herself at a loss for words as her slightly panicked babbling trailed off, the words spoken by Paine having stolen away her own. She thought back to the cabin the night they got her back to the airship and healed up, the words spoken then, the expressions and feelings that lingered in the air then. They were back again, the feeling that both she and Paine were standing at the edge of something they were both afraid of, the feeling that words needed desperately to be said, lingering there in the front of her mind, but still left unsaid, she had promised to wait until getting to Besaid, afterall. She could sense the nerves in Paine, realizing just how much it must be taking Paine to be standing there and holding her, knowing that she was pushing the woman out of her usual comfort zone by her actions, and terribly afraid she was going to push too far. Whimpering faintly, she dropped her head forward again, pressing her cheek to Paine's shoulder, holding onto her tightly as she looked across the warriors chest. "I...I..." Words failed her, any eloquence she may have had stolen from her. "...promise?" The word squeaked out, sounding pitiful, causing Rikku to blush softly.

Paine closed her eyes and exhaled lightly when Rikku finally looked down again, fingers gently rubbing at Rikku's lower back in an idle movement she wasn't entirely conscious of doing. The squeaked out question caught her off guard again, not that she was really with it at all during the last several minutes. Looking down to Rikku, her eyes followed the slow track of a tear as it slid down her cheek, only to drip off onto her shawl, the piece of clothing a little damp now from the tears it collected. Opening her mouth, words refused to work right for her, too, and she closed her mouth again, taking a moment. Everything seemed to fade into the background, the only thing worth paying attention to at the moment being the woman in her arms. Tightening her hold a little, Paine nodded softly, her voice soft when she finally found it again. "Promise."

Like a plug had been pulled and released the tension, Paine's reply caused Rikku to all but sag against the taller woman, her shoulders slumping as she relaxed. She closed her eyes, nodding a little as she just stayed close, looking to have no intention of moving from where she was, at least not at the moment. Paine stood up a little straighter, looking down at the now relatively calm Al-bhed in her hold, a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Looking up and out over the water, she turned her head slightly, watching Besaid as it approached. Quiet settled comfortably on the two, the tension Paine felt regarding her situation with Rikku not gone, but pushed away for the moment, at least.

As the island approached and became fairly clear in it's appearance, the wide beach that they frequently docked to coming into view, a few people on the beach just barely noticeable, Paine shifted a little, and sighed lightly as she heard the telltale rattle of the lift approaching the deck, very gently pulling back from Rikku, ignoring the pang in her heart when Rikku made a disappointed sound of protest, though pulled back when she heard the lift stop. Stepping back from Paine, staying within quick reach of the woman as she still looked a little uncertain of being up there, she turned toward the lift, starting to head toward it when Paine moved forward some as well. The doors of the old lift opened with a soft hiss, Yuna slipping through and looking fairly surprised at seeing the two women there, her confusion masked by her smile. "Hey...didn't expect you up here Rikku..." She moved forward, reaching out and taking both of Rikku's hands in her own, Paine glancing away for a moment before looking back.

Nodding a little, Rikku squeezed Yuna's hands lightly, glancing over her shoulder as if she were looking to the approaching island, but using it as an opportunity to glance to Paine, smiling lightly as she catches the woman's eye. Looking back to Yuna, she started to urge the woman back toward the lift. "Yeah, I had to get over myself. We're almost there, huh? Bet that's why you came up, isn't it?" She grinned to her cousin, her irritation at the moment before being interrupted pushed aside as she found herself quite eager to get onto solid ground.

"Yeah, almost. I contacted Lulu, and she's gonna want to look at your arm again at some point." Yuna wrinkled her nose slightly, and Rikku couldn't help but laugh at the expression as she pulled Yuna into the lift, holding the door and waiting for Paine, the woman slipping in a moment after and hitting the button for the cabin.

"She's just being protective Yunie. I know you and Paine healed it right, think of this as a chance to prove to Lulu that you did learn from her and know what you're doing?" Rikku tried to reassure her cousin, catching Paine's smirk out of the corner of her eye.

"It's not like I didn't learn and helped heal on the pilgrimage!" Yuna huffed, but she smiled at Rikku and nodded, pulling her cousin into the cabin once the lift stopped. "Anyway, we'll visit with Lulu and Wakka while Brother and Buddy go to Luca and get the parts they want and fix the airship. Maybe I'll go visit the temple..."

Paine paused by the bar, asking Barkeep for a drink, but turned toward Yuna and raised an eyebrow slightly. "The temple? Is that such a good idea? With that dark version of Bahamut in Bevelle and all the reported fiends out and around all of a sudden because of it..."

Yuna's expression shifted to fairly serious, though Rikku could see the worry in her eyes. "Yeah, Im sure. Just because we haven't heard from Besaid that there's fiends loose there now, doesnt mean that we should't check, huh? I...really don't want there to be any..." Fighting Bahamut was terribly hard on the High Summoner, though in the lull afterwards when they couldn't find any spheres she had seemed to calm down about it, and hadn't spoken of it since, though of course, Rikku's injury took priority in her mind, and now that that was taken care of...

Rikku squeezed Yuna's hand. "If Lulu didn't mention it, it's got to be okay. Come on, lets go get some stuff together, I want to sleep in the village when we get there, not on this thing." She pulled her cousin upstairs, both girls grateful for the little distraction. Paine watched them go as she leaned against the bar, then glanced down at her drink once Barkeep handed it to her. Murmuring a light thanks, she downed it in one go, then followed upstairs to be greeted with a bit of a confused look from the cousins as she started to pack a bag as well. "Gonna stay on the island with us?" Rikku asked, a bit of a hopeful sound to her voice.

Paine nodded, just barely hiding the smile that tried to force its way free when she saw the happy expression in the blond girl's eyes. "Yeah, could use some fresh air. And get away from Oaka."

Yuna and Rikku both giggled at that, nodding in full agreement as they finished packing their bags at about the same time the airship gently bumped into the shallow water of Besaid, Brother announcing over the intercom that they had arrived.

* * *

Wakka had met them in the shallows with a canoe, keeping them from having to wade through the water, though Rikku and Paine did anyway, Yuna giving in to Wakka's want to 'take care of her' some. Rikku ran ahead through the shallows to the shore, greeting Lulu. Paine walked next to the canoe and watched, quietly marveling at just how out of place the former Black Mage looked in the island setting. Despite this, she still obviously fit, somehow. Paine found herself wondering if that's how she appeared to others when they saw her with Rikku and Yuna, the warrior glancing down at her black clothing before she looked up to the shore again, just shaking her head slightly. Greeting the older woman when she and Yuna reached shore, Yuna giving the pregnant woman a hug, the small group of women started down the path to the village, Wakka going back to the airship to give the boys a hand.

"Looking forward to a little bit of quiet, girls?" Lulu asked, Yuna having threaded her arm with her Guardian as they walked.

"That's an understatement Lulu. Im mostly glad to be off the ship!" Rikku moved forward from the group a distance, only to come back and meet them again, Lulu watching her as she moved, likely evaluating the young Al-bhed and her health.

"Yeah, me too. We've been traveling a lot, and though we'll get breaks where no spheres seem to be popping up, it gets pretty fast paced at other times." Yuna added, Paine nodding in agreement as the former summoner kept talking. "I enjoy it! But I missed home and you guys too." Pausing as they crested the hill that overlooked the village, Yuna looked toward the temple, lighting biting down on her lower lip. "Lulu? Have things been quiet around the temple? Does anyone go all the way in anymore, or am I the last to?" She was referring to the chamber of the Fayth, a place that traditionally only a summoner went, and this still held pretty strong everywhere but Djose, to an extent, Gippal having enough sense to keep that place still pretty sacred and private.

Lulu looked a little puzzled for a moment, then oh'd softly and nodded. "You mean the fiends that were reported in Bevelle near the temple? We've not seen any increase in those that are naturally here on the island, and none from the temple. There's just one priest, left, and I don't believe he goes into the main chamber." Lulu glanced to Yuna, studying her expression for a moment. "You'll have to tell me about what happened in Bevelle."

Paine smiled lightly at that statement, knowing that Lulu was more likely to get Yuna to talk about her discomfort finding and having to fight Bahamut than she or Rikku could, despite Rikku's experience, likely because Yuna could tell that it bothered Rikku some, too. Yuna nodded to Lulu, ducking her head slightly, getting a reassuring squeeze from the older woman. Rikku stuck her tongue out slightly and grabbed Lulu's free hand, gently tugging her forward. "Come on you three, it's late and I'm starving, let's get to the village before the three clowns get off the airship and eat everything in sight. I swear Shinra hides food in his suit.."

Yuna and Lulu laughed at Rikku's statement, nodding as they let the blond pull them on, Paine following at her usual sedate pace. After a bit of slightly odd discussion that made Yuna look like she was trying to be small and Rikku blush a little, it was decided that Rikku and Paine would share one of the smaller huts that had been built, and Yuna would stay with Lulu and Wakka as she used to. Buddy, Brother and Shinra getting another hut, should they choose to stay on the island, though Rikku suspected the three would be more comfortable on the airship. After getting settled in the arranged sleeping quarters, Paine faintly upset at how quickly Rikku dodged into the hut and back out without even really looking to the warrior, the village came together around the fire for a community dinner of sorts, welcoming the Gullwings back to the island and using the opportunity to tell stories.

Brother was in his element, with a rapt audience paying attention to his bizarre gyrations as he exaggerated stories of the Gullwing's exploits despite Rikku's occasional corrections, he and Buddy eagerly telling tales of the exploration that the two men had done before they found the Celsius. Though Paine was fairly certain that half of the islands residents couldn't understand Brother's thick accent, they all seemed amused at the pantomiming that went along with the quickly spoken words and stories. As night fell, Yuna and Lulu withdrew a distance to speak quietly as the stories continued to be shared, Brother yielding the stage to some of the older people in the village to tell legends and stories of creatures in the island jungle. Paine found the atmosphere quite comfortable, enjoying sitting just at the edge of the bonfire's light, getting enough warmth even as cool air blew in off of the ocean. It was shortly after the sun had fully set that it finally registered in Paine's mind that Rikku was nowhere to be seen. Glancing over to Yuna, she briefly tried to get the girl's attention before deciding against it, frowning slightly as her eyes scanned the village.

Standing, she slipped over to the hut she and Rikku had been 'assigned', drawing back the thick cloth door and peering in, taking a moment to adjust to the dark room. Frustratingly, it was empty, the thief not there. Trying to look casual and blend into the shadows, Paine moved away from the hut, briefly glancing into Lulu and Wakka's home and again finding it empty, then moved along to the edge of the village. She paused, glancing back to the fire again, musing to herself quietly. Briefly considering telling Yuna, she decided against it, not wanting to cause undue concern about the fact that Rikku seemed to be missing, and Paine had very little idea as to where to go to find her. Rikku had the advantage when it came to wanting to be alone when it came to Besaid, having visited here much more frequently than Paine ever had, this being only the fourth time that she was there, and as she walked down the dimly lit path, the first time she ever really went anywhere alone. It wasn't that she was scared, far from it, the warrior used to shadows and the things that lurked within them, it was more that she felt out of her element, and this certainly didn't help, especially when the thoughts from earlier that day when she was on the deck alone popped back into her mind. Recalling that she suspected that once she reached Besaid, things could clear, her thoughts would stop being so jumbled, that she'd come to her senses.

Reflecting on the uncertainty that was still within her mind, the unease over not knowing where Rikku was, and the bare simple fact that she was out here in the dark wandering around looking for her fairly well cemented in Paine's mind that no, these feelings weren't just going to go away. "Where are you, little thief?" She murmured as she paused on the hill with the old ruins, looking down to the beach and the Celsius, smiling lightly when she spied the solitary figure wandering along the beach. "Ah ha.." She smiled a little wider, though slightly rolling her eyes at herself as she felt relief push away the worry that was building, turning from the edge and starting down the pathway to the beach.

* * *

Rikku had no idea why she was on the beach and away from the village, though she reasoned that if anyone asked, she could say she was getting something from the Celsius. She liked listening to stories, but something about the legends of the different sorts of fiends got to her tonight, pressing a little too close to some old fears. It was a little crazy, being out here alone, there were fiends that lived on the island, but she wasn't exactly a slouch of a fighter, either. She could take care of herself, and she knew it, nodding lightly to herself and letting that thought pass. Her thoughts drifted along various paths as she wandered up and down the white sands, thinking on anything from what the Gullwings had gotten themselves into, to memories of the Pilgrimage and the past, and the people from then. Her mind settled on Auron, and her cheeks colored a bit at the memory of the Unsent man's face. She smiled at the memory of more quiet moments, of conversation with him, of relaxing, enjoyable time spent, her cheeks coloring a little darker. She sighed softly and smiled down at the sand, pausing and turning her gaze up to the stars.

"Would you approve of this?" She asked the sky, spiraled eyes watching the stars as if expecting them to answer. She had always searched for Auron's approval since the first time when he gave his blessing that she be allowed to be one of Yuna's Guardians. His acceptance of her and of what she could do became so important to her, only the journey they were on and saving Yuna mattered more. It gave her little thrills whenever he would nod and give her a barely noticeable smile, and now, in her confusion over her feelings, she found herself quietly seeking his approval again. Long ago come to terms with his departure, she reasoned that she likely had accepted it that day in Guadosalam when she didn't go into the Farplane with the others, she knew she could give her heart freely, but she still wanted to know, inside, that he would think it okay. Laughing lightly, she shook her head again. "Fayth, of course you would. Hell, she's practically a female version of you...just with less red."

Turning, she started to wander the beach again, scuffing her boots in the sand. "I know my feelings, but she...seems reluctant. Feel like I'm going toward a wounded animal..." Clasping her hands behind her back, she stopped and looked to the sand for a moment, then turned and retraced her path. "And what would the others think? Pops might be upset...Brother...I dont know. What of the rest of Spira? Like it or not I'm a 'role model' to other Al-bhed, at least if you believe what Pops said...bah. Why can't I just not think about that and do something for myself for once?"

A thought caused her to pause in her tracks, and she laughed, a little bitterly. "Yuna feels the same thing, there. Wakka wanted her to marry some shmuck from New Yevon...probably wanted her to marry Baralai for all I know. Everyone wanting her to do things for them...it wasn't enough she was going to die for the jerks." Scowling a little, she crouched and grabbed a stone, weighing it in her hand. "Now Pops wants me and Brother to lead the tribe. To give up everything for something that's changing every day...I dont want to be like Nooj or Baralai and stuck behind all the politics, I want to live my life!" She hauled back with the rock before sending it flying across the water, watching as it skipped along, jumping and blushing brightly when she heard the teletale metallic 'panggggggg' of the stone hitting the Celsius, bringing one hand to her lips and holding back the laughter.

"Oh now you did it. I'm going to tell Brother." Paine's voice came from the darkness, starting Rikku and causing her to jump as she twisted around to face the pale woman, sticking her tongue out when she spied the amused smirk on Paine's features.

"Oh hush. It's not like I made one of the engine's fall off or something." Rikku pouted, crossing her arms and huffing.

Paine chuckled lightly and shook her head a little. "Teasing Rikku, I was teasing..." She walked past the blond, getting the curious girl to watch her from the corner of her eye as Paine wandered up the beach closer to the forest and cliffs, bending to pick up driftwood and fallen branches. "Needed to get away, some?" Paine quietly asked, coming back with the armfull of firewood, dropping it on the ground before she crouched to arrange it into a small pile.

Nodding, Rikku moved forward to Paine's side, crouching down as well. "Yeah. Didn't feel in the mood to listen to the stories, and wanted to think. I'm glad you came and found me." She smiled, getting a raised eyebrow from Paine as she worked to get the fire going.

"Oh? Well, I wasn't sure I could find you. You know this island better than I do." Paine replied, smiling as she got a small flame going, feeding tinder to it before she moved back slightly and sat, crossing her legs. Rikku sat down next to her, Paine's cheeks coloring slightly in the darkness as the thief leaned against her side.

"Yeah, I do, but I wasn't hiding. Just thinking." Rikku replied, watching the fire as it grew a little before burning steadily.

"Good thoughts?" Paine quietly asked, feeling the bit of nervousness pick up inside of her chest again, the warrior mentally squashing it down.

"Mostly."

Nodding, Paine leaned back a little, exhaling softly as she watched the fire. Rikku didn't offer any further information about what she was thinking about, and Paine didn't see fit to pry, the woman staying quiet as the younger woman leaned her head to her shoulder. Both knew there were things that needed to be said, so many things, in both of their minds. Questions that needed definite answers, worries that needed to be voiced, positions and opinions that needed to be clarified. But sitting in the dark on the beach with the soft fire in front of them, and the twinkle of stars above, seemed to have a silencing affect on both girls, the quiet becoming comfortable, things feeling more 'right' than any words could ever tell.

Looking down from watching the stars, Paine turned her attention to watching Rikku, studying her features, her expression. She didn't look away when emerald eyes met hers, the comfort and 'rightness' of the moment giving Paine strength. Rikku just watched, eyes searching the ruby ones above her, keeping her head to the taller girl's shoulder, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Paine arched an eyebrow at seeing the smile, but didn't speak any questions. Instead, she shifted slightly, bringing her hand up, gloved fingertips lightly touching to Rikku's jawline before she made a soft sound, pulling her hand back to take off her glove, bare flesh touching now as she brought her hand back up. Rikku closed her eyes and leaned slightly toward the touch, a soft sigh escaping her, Paine's cheeks turning a little more red. There was a moments hesitation. A pause of a heartbeat. The catching of breath in the throat. The final steeled decision. The first, almost shy touch of lips to lips, the tightening of the grip that had latched to an arm. The greater assurance that came from lack of rejection, the deepening of the kiss.

Waves washed softly against the shore, the flames crackled quietly as they burned. Stars shone silently above, twinkling as they looked down upon the world. No words were spoken, and none needed to be said as the night wrapped warm arms around the island, the stars the only wittiness to the collapsing of walls, and the destruction of loneliness that crept silently in on the touch of a pair of lips.

* * *

Author's note: Funny that heavy metal and 'angst' music would spur me on to write this chapter. Thank you to everyone who's watched me and this story and kept up with it despite my lousey update schedule. I hope this chapter is worth it. And yes, veiled Aurikku. Deal. hehe. 


	9. Words Were Spoken

**Disclaimer: I don't own FinalFantasyX-2, I'm just using the characters for my own uses.**

**Summary: A look at Rikku and Paine, and the evolving dynamic's between the two, taking a few creative liberties with the storyline but generally following the story.**

* * *

"I don't really know what to think. I mean, it's not like it's not something that happened? I mean, 'Bhed, we're all about 'capturing the moment' and living life as much as we can since you know, the whole 'kill on sight' thing Yevon had going for so long, but even then it was slightly frowned upon, cause like, need babies to keep the people going and all, and that's a little hard to do when one of the pair is missing the right parts, and all." Rikku quietly babbled as she stayed curled against Paine's side. They hadn't actually said much regarding themselves, but the actions from earlier seemed to mostly say everything for them, leaving them in comfortable, almost familiar silence that just felt right. Rikku had finally broke the silence as the tide went out, detailing her quiet worries about her feelings, most of them regarding how others would view her. Paine found these worries only slightly echoed in her, she was enough of an 'unknown' around Spira that she didn't need to really care about being a role model, but she understood why Rikku was worried.

"How about thinking of it as you being an example of why it's okay, now?" Paine quietly interjected as Rikku paused for breath, adjusting her hold around the blond girls waist, fingers now bare of her gloves softly stroking over the toned muscles of Rikku's stomach. She knew there were things that still needed to be said, or she'd never forgive herself for it, but for the moment, all was well. "You're not ashamed of it, are you?'

Rikku blinked lightly, dark green eyes flicking up to look at Paine's features. She frowned faintly and wrinkled her nose, an expression Paine found cute rather than upsetting. "Of course I'm not ashamed of it, I'm just..." She trailed off, her expression softening a little. "I don't want to disappoint people. But I guess the important ones who really matter won't be, huh?"

Paine smiled lightly and shrugged. "You know your important people best, I think." She glanced toward the path that headed to the village, knowing that most of those important people were not very far away indeed. Rikku smiled lightly, Paine leaning in and brushing her lips softly over hers, Rikku leaning to the touch for a moment. "I know why you worry, little thief, but I think that you're allowed to do something for yourself now, huh?"

"I guess...forgive me if I worry for a little?" The shorter girl asked, shifting a bit and stretching her back, Paine arching an eyebrow slightly as she pressed her fingers in a little firmer against Rikku's stomach. "We should probably be a little quiet, though...I mean, not just because of being worried, more like. Yuna's so lonely, and I just...I don't want to make thing's weird. It's already kinda stressful with the weird thing about Bahamut and the tension with the Youth League and New Yevon...it's all fun and everything being so active, but...yeah."

"Of course, it's okay, and I kind of prefer being quiet." Paine smiled a little, this statement getting a giggle out of Rikku. Resting her cheek lightly to the top of Rikku's head, a slightly hesitant motion, Paine still slightly unsure. "I'm kind of.." She sighed lightly, keeping her cheek where it was but turning her eyes out to the water. "This is new territory for me, Rikku. I don't...I don't want you to get hurt. I've never...grh." A frustrated sound came from her as she lifted her head, another sigh leaving her, Rikku watching her, keeping quiet and letting Paine speak as she will. "Not feeling keeps me safe. Last time I let myself care...things didn't end well. We do dangerous things...but I guess it's the feelings stirred by those same dangerous things that won't let me just hide." Speaking more to herself, Paine mused through the things which had tormented her for quite some time. "It's funny. You and Yuna took away my reason for fighting when you destroyed Sin, only to give it back to me with your very selves. Been a while since I've had that, and I'm not so good at these sorts of emotional things..." She trailed off, her cheeks flushed softly after the string of words, more than she'd usually speak, the woman finding that Rikku seemed to have that affect on her.

Rikku shifted around, moving from Paine's side to in front of her, moving into the warriors lap and straddling her waist, reaching up to rest her hands gently on Paine's shoulders, fingertips studying the muscles some. Searching the woman's expression, she smiled warmly, a different sort of smile than what she usually wore. Paine found this certain smile gave her a thrill inside, as there was just something...more, about it. It gave Rikku a mature, gentler look, and the spark in the younger woman's eyes carried a hint of the attraction she knew was echoed in her own. It was as if curtains were pulled back from hiding something, giving Paine a deeper look into the young woman in her arms. "It's okay. We'll figure it out I think." She reached up, stroking her fingers through Paine's hair, tilting her head slightly and smiling at the play of the firelight on the silver strands. Her smile quirked, shifting in a breaths moment to the usual, somewhat mischievous smile, making Paine quirk an eyebrow.

"...what?" She asked, idly stroking her hands along Rikku's sides, drifting over her stomach to around to her back, something Paine realized she had wanted to do for a very long time.

Rikku giggled and tugged lightly on a strand of hair. "Just wondering if there's Ronso somewhere in your ancestry, and if that's even possible!"

Paine rolled her eyes and chuckled softly, shaking her head a little. "Like I haven't heard that one before, meddma dreav." She lightly clicked her teeth at Rikku's hand as the young woman trailed her fingers down along Paine's cheek, Rikku squeaking lightly at the teeth clack, only to giggle and lean in, nuzzling up under Paine's chin as she wrapped her arms up and around her shoulders.

"I suppose, but it's still funny to me." Rikku giggled, nestling in against Paine and closing her eyes, savoring the feel of Paine's hands as they roamed along her back and abdomen. Surprised at the fact that the warrior's hands weren't calloused from wielding her sword, she supposed it was because of the leather gloves which Paine usually wore, and quietly thanked her luck for Paine having taken that precaution. A faint frown creased her features as she felt Paine's hands still, Rikku flexing her back a little as she felt the gentle press of fingertips a bit firmer to her skin, Rikku's arms tightening around Paine's neck as she tensed a little in anticipation.

"Rikku? What's this?" Paine quietly asked, her fingers softly exploring the series of 'dents' she felt in Rikku's muscles, leaning back slightly as she glanced down over the blond girl's shoulder, eyes searching the smooth skinned back before she moved her hand around to Rikku's stomach again, realizing that she had felt similar dents there earlier, but had just dismissed it as an oddity of the position her hand had been in.

A soft sigh drifted from Rikku, warmth breath washing over Paine's skin. Leaning back slightly, she reached for Paine's wrist, gently directing her hand to the two marks on her stomach which were obviously deeper and larger. Smiling lightly, she looked up to the warrior, keeping one of her arms wrapped up around Paine's shoulders. "Teeth marks." Paine blinked in a bit of surprise, opening her mouth slightly to say something, but Rikku continued. "Yeah, I know, I don't have scars on my skin. Yuna panicked and used a really strong heal, and Lulu figured it was also from me still being young and 'stretchy' as she put it."

Paine nodded slightly, her brow furrowed a little as she softly probed the dents. "Chimera?" She guessed, nodding when Rikku did and murmured 'lupus head'. Her frown grew a little more as she paused the motion of her hand, looking to Rikku's face, a small pit growing in her stomach as a thought quite suddenly crossed her mind, one that hadn't struck her before. "This killed you, didn't it? How many times on the Pilgrimage...?" The dangers of the Pilgrimage weren't unknown, so many had failed so many times in the past, but since they had succeeded, it never really triggered to Paine's thoughts that Yuna's was still just as rough as any of the others.

Rikku fidgeted a little in Paine's lap, her gaze turned out to the side as she didn't directly look at the other woman. The idle exploration and discovery of the wounds had hit directly onto something Rikku hated to talk about, death. Her dislike of the Farplane was greater than the simple 'Bhed belief of what the pyreflies did, it was largely because of her inadvertent visits there. Paine tightened her grip on Rikku's hips when Rikku didn't respond to her right away, the warrior about to repeat her question before Rikku finally spoke. "Yeah, it did. Which is probably the other reason why it didn't scar, Lulu used a Phoenix Down as soon as they got me out of it's mouth, about the same time Yuna apparently threw the big cure on me that fixed things even before I had come back fully. I don't...I don't remember it, or a bit of time before and after." She smiled faintly. "Apparently we were an unusual group of Guardians for a lot more reasons other than how -many- of us there were...Lulu said that a lot of other groups who wouldn't use Phoenix Downs like we did...we were just...really intent on not letting anybody go."

Sitting up a little straighter, Paine kept the fairly serious expression on her features, but it was soft enough to obviously show her care in her eyes. She found herself extremely upset over the thought that such a thing happened to Rikku, and had to fight down the budding frustration with Yuna and the other remaining former Guardians for having let it happen, she knew logically that the same had probably happened to the others, too. Her curiosity and worry prodded for her to speak again, Paine unable to keep herself quiet. "I'm glad, but...how many times? Using Phoenix Down so much isn't..." She trailed off, not needing to say how the constant use of potions and other magical medicinal options caused them to 'dull' in their effectiveness on a person, many people in the military having been forced to retire when a usual potion wouldn't do what it was meant to anymore.

Rikku glanced up to Paine, able to tell that this wasn't an easy conversation for Paine to hear, just as much as it wasn't easy for her to speak of it. Hesitating for another moment, she mentally reminded herself that she had long decided to be as honest as she could be with Paine, even if Paine wasn't very forthcoming with details of her own past. She didn't have to think long on her answer, leaning in to rest her cheek to Paine's shoulder, looking at the pale woman's neck and watching her pulse. "Three times." She almost continued, saying what each time was, but she didn't want to approach that subject just yet. Closing her eyes, Paine sighed softly.

"And once when you were a kid?" Paine asked softly, knowing of the source of Rikku's old, now gone fear of lightning and how she got it. The thought of four times echoed repeatedly in Paine's mind, her stomach feeling a little hollow. Rikku shook her head slightly, Paine squeezing her eyes a little tighter shut.

"Twice when I was a kid. The lightning thing, and when I was in the same room as a machina that exploded. We were only able to bring back four from then, lots of people were too far gone by the time rescuers were able to get there, it was past the hour point..." Rikku trailed off, shifting around in Paine's lap to sit with her back to the other woman's chest, pulling Paine's arms around her, the warrior woman eagerly holding the thief close. "They thought that I might had been gone for an hour and that the Down would be useless, but I guess because of being Cid's kid they tried anyway and it wasn't too long." She snorted in a faint, half laugh. "Well, apparently, I'm here."

Leaning down, Paine nuzzled lightly to Rikku's neck, inhaling her scent, brushing her cheek against her soft blond hair. "Oh Rikku. Five times is too much..." The thought of what this meant, fayth forbid, should anything get so far out of hand that it would be needed, loomed in her mind, worry that it would simply not work causing emotions to twist at her heart again. Her mind flashed back to the Al-bhed girl rescuing her from the fiend in the cave and how injured she was from it, a light shiver flowing down her spine. "I...want to ask you to stop doing this, but that would be silly."

Rikku laughed softly, playing her hands along Paine's arms around her. "Yes, that would be silly. You should know me by now, I think. Not going to let it stop me from living my life...not remembering things around the time that things happened is a little frustrating, though. I record a lot of things on spheres now." She grinned as Paine made a bit of a surprised sound and lifted her head a little, Rikku pointing to the pouch on her left hip, the most 'front' of the two. "It's in there. I reuse the sphere if nothing amazing happens that day, most days don't get saved. And no, I don't have it going now...I won't forget this. It's mostly when I'm with others, and during the day...I promise there's nothing 'bad' saved, and I've got all of them very hidden." Looking over her shoulder to Paine, she turned so that she could lean up and kiss the slightly wrinkled nose of the warrior, Paine looking just slightly upset, but the expression passed as understanding replaced it.

"Okay, just try to keep things hidden, huh?" Paine smiled when Rikku kissed her nose, reaching up to lightly tap Rikku's chin before drifting her fingers down along Rikku's jawline. Her smile drifted to something more neutral, the woman's eyes growing a little distant. "I guess it's only fair to tell you I've needed it twice..." A faint smirk touched her smile. "..that I remember anyway. There's a part of my childhood I don't remember. Things just sort of stop, and then the rest of my life starts. I don't think I needed it then? I think it was something else that took my memory, but I couldn't tell you for certain."

The blond nodded a little, a small swell of happiness inside that Paine trusted her with this 'tidbit' of her past, Rikku squashing down questions that sprung up. A pang of disappointment plucked at her thoughts as she considered that Paine needed to have a Phoenix Down used on her, but considering what she knew of Paine's lifestyle before joining the Gullwings, she was pleased to know that it was only two and no more. "Thank you for telling me. It's all in the past, huh? We're good enough to not need that anymore." She nodded with certainty, trying very hard to not fidget in Paine's lap, very uncomfortable with the current topic, but trying to keep calm. Paine looked down over Rikku's shoulder, quietly inspecting the younger woman, smiling lightly as she felt Rikku's discomfort. Her touch along Rikku's stomach softened a bit, Paine nuzzling gently to the back of the thief's neck, a soft shiver flowing down her back as she lightly brushed her lips over soft skin. Rikku's shoulders slowly relaxed as she felt the topic drift off, taking Paine's silence as confirmation of her musing. The warm, soft feel of the older woman's lips against her skin helping to soothe away the tension, Rikku's eyes slipping closed. Though her gloves left her fingertips bared, Rikku idly removed them, tucking them into a pouch as she dropped her hands down from lightly holding Paine's arms around her to rest on top of Paine's thighs. Her lips quirked into a smile as she felt the brief shiver from the woman behind her, Rikku's deft fingers working over the top of the leather clad legs, drifting down to play over the top of Paine's knees. Her touch was lazy, and slow, she content with simply focusing on the feel of Paine's warm form against her back.

Paine, for her part, found this to be new, and enjoyable territory to explore, even if there was still that slightly shaky unease of uncertainty in her thoughts. Having decided to actually listen to the emotions in her thoughts and heart, she knew she wouldn't just do things half assed, and though they were going to keep quiet, that didn't mean she couldn't express her feelings, some what, and do what she found she longed to do, and right now, that meant caressing Rikku's sides and learning the feel of her skin below lips and fingers. Rikku's hair was soft, and as cliched as it sounded, the warrior found herself comparing it to the feel of soft feathers from Chocobos, a smile quirking her cheeks as she nosed against the feathered earring hanging along the side of Rikku's neck. She ran her fingers up over Rikku's ribs, faintly disappointed to find that the 'Bhed wasn't ticklish, fingertips briefly ghosting over the length of the tie for Rikku's top that slipped around her sides, a bare pause spent with the brief consideration of doing something further, Paine hesitating for a moment before she slid her hands up to hold her shoulders, strong fingers starting to massage as she placed a soft kiss behind Rikku's ear. Disappointment thick in her voice, she murmured softly, not wanting to speak too loud in the quiet of the night. "It's getting late, meddma dreav, we should head back..." Rikku shivered softly at the touch against the skin behind her ear, looking over her shoulder to Paine, sticking her tongue out slightly as she leaned back into the warrior's hands.

"I guess. Just a little longer, please?" Rikku asked, squeezing lightly above Paine's knees, the other woman chuckling softly as she nodded, Rikku smiling and shifting a little, resting her head back against Paine's opposite shoulder. She closed her eyes and let herself relax, really relax, for the first time since the incident on the Celsius. Paine arched an eyebrow slightly as she felt Rikku grow heavier against her, continuing to work her fingers softly into her shoulders, easing the tension from the 'Bhed's muscles. A light sound coaxed Paine to look to Rikku, the silver haired woman laughing lightly to herself as she realized that Rikku had fallen asleep, the light sound having been her starting to breathe a little open mouthed. Exhaling a soft, happy sort of sigh, Paine shifted a little, pushing sand over the last of the softly glowing coals with her heel before she adjusted Rikku in her hold, smoothly standing and lifting Rikku in her arms, carefully resting the 'Bhed girl's head to her shoulder. Paine's cheeks colored in the darkness as Rikku gripped at her shawl in her sleep, Paine exhaling slowly as she stood still and focused her thoughts for a moment, composing her expression.

Starting back toward the village, she switched her attention between watching the forest and the path she was on to watching Rikku sleep, smiling lightly as she considered how easy it was to walk with Rikku in her arms. She had carried Rikku before, though that time had been fueled by panic after finding her in the Thunder Plains when Rikku had decided to go get rid of her fear and Paine had found her unconscious; she much preferred this way. Usually, a person would look younger in their sleep. Rikku's soothed, relaxed expression had something of the opposite affect, leaving the young woman looking more mature, baring more clearly to the world the strong person that lay below the bounce and smile. Some days Paine could get a little frustrated with Rikku for the cheer, not fully understanding why she was that way, but as time went on she accepted it, even if she didn't quite understand it. She guessed it was a survival mechanism like Paine's silence could be, to keep the world a little at bay. Or, Paine thought as she recalled Rikku's babbling before, she was doing it not for her sake, but for the sake of everyone who knew her. Pausing for a moment, Paine frowned slightly, this thought unsettling her some. But wasn't she just as knowledgeable about doing things for someone else's sake? Her silence regarding Nooj, Baralai and Gippal was a perfect example of that, but there were other, lingering reasons in there as well, namely her want to understand why some things happened. Did Rikku have other reasons? Would Paine ever find them out?

She sighed, shaking her head a little as she adjusted Rikku in her arms, cresting the hill overlooking the village. Too many things to think about, she needed to focus, and focus was something that eluded her lately. The village below seemed quiet, the large bonfire burnt down to a small flame, lighting up only a small circle, just a few figures left up, three to be exact. Paine chuckled lightly as she easily identified Yuna, Lulu and Wakka, the rest of the village having left for their individual huts, she finding herself glad that the Gullwing boys had decided to stay there instead of head back to the airship. She felt slightly the outsider as she descended the hill, after all, there were three people who saved the world, and what did she have? Tilting her head a little, the light haired warrior glanced down at Rikku, a smile curling her lips. She had the heart of a woman who helped save the world, and depending on how things continued with whatever it was Baralai and Nooj were hiding, maybe she'd belong after all.

Yuna looked up and blinked in surprise as she heard Paine approach, her eyes widening a little when she saw Rikku held in the other woman's arms, Yuna starting to stand before Paine shook her head and gestured slightly with one hand, speaking softly. "It's okay, she's just asleep." Yuna fairly quickly relaxed back down to sit, tilting her head a little and looking over the sleeping woman in Paine's arms.

Lulu, who looked a little surprised that Yuna had noticed Paine before she or Wakka did, nodded a little and smiled lightly, about to say something before she paused, her brow furrowing just slightly as she looked Paine over some, almost as if she were seeing something she hadn't before, and was retaking stock of the warrior, Paine noticing this but not saying anything, simply stiffening her shoulders slightly as she neared the fire. Yuna blushed soft and offered Paine a crooked smile, rubbing behind her neck a little. "We didn't know you were gone. Thought that you and Rikku had gone to bed." She murmured, keeping her voice low. "Where were you?"

_Crap._ Paine briefly thought. She hadn't considered what she should say if someone asked that question, taking a moment to slightly shift Rikku as an excuse for not speaking immediately. "I needed something from the Celsius, and hung out on it for a bit. Rikku was on the beach when I left the ship, and she talked for a while, then fell asleep." She hoped she sounded convincing, and she was partly truthful, Rikku did talk a fair bit before falling asleep. She noticed the subtle lift of Lulu's eyebrow, knowing that the older woman had probably picked up on the little white lie, but Wakka seemed oblivious, the man half asleep as he held the black mage.

Yuna giggled softly and nodded. "Yeah, she does that sometimes, huh? Thank you for not leaving her on the beach." Paine sighed with relief internally, Yuna at least had bought it, and she knew that right now that was most important to Rikku. Looking over to the hut that she and Rikku had been given, she nodded to Yuna and smiled lightly, moving about the edge of the firelight to head to the hut.

"I wouldn't have left her there Yuna. I've carried you down from falling asleep on the deck, not going to leave her in the cold sand when she's still not quite one hundred percent." Paine quietly chastised the former summoner, hiding a smile when she spotted Yuna's blush, Lulu and Wakka laughing softly. "See you in the morning." She quietly spoke, excusing herself from further conversation with the small group as she slipped into the hut. Pausing in the doorway, she stood still for a few moments, letting her eyes readjust to the dim lighting. Outside she heard the muffled murmuring of the others, it trailing off into mostly silence as she listened to the group move to Lulu and Wakka's home, letting the nighttime sounds of the jungle creep in. Over the soft crackle of the last bits of the fire mingled the sounds of bugs and frogs in the night, the occasional interruption of a bird. Closing her eyes, Paine focused on the sounds around her, furrowing her brow slightly as she pinpointed a strange bit of silence. Turning her head slightly, she opened her eyes again, looking at the wall of the hut that was closest to the temple, frowning faintly as she considered the quiet.

"You gonna stand here all night or are we going to lay down?" Rikku's soft voice startled Paine from her thoughts, Paine starting a little and glancing down to Rikku, an eyebrow raising slightly, Rikku giggling lightly, she looking still mostly asleep as she gently held to Paine's shawl.

"Hush. You're lucky I didn't leave you on the beach." Paine quietly teased, smiling as she arched an eyebrow slightly, moving over to Rikku's bed, crouching slightly as she moved to set Rikku down. Tilting her head slightly as Rikku didn't seem inclined to let go of her shawl, she gently rested one hand on either side of Rikku's shoulders, looking down to the woman below her. Rikku quietly looked up to the warrior, her hands curled in their hold on Paine, cheeks flushing softly with color.

"Stay with me?" She quietly asked, a little bit of a tremble to her voice as she let go of Paine with one hand so she could tug her scarf off before tugging her bandanna off and letting her hair a little more loose, squirming slightly to get her boots off, two soft thuds heard on the floor as they fell. Paine's cheeks colored faintly, Rikku's smile growing a little at being able to get such a visible reaction from the woman. She was nervous asking Paine to do this, a little voice in the back of her head scolding her for leaping so quickly to such a thing, but right now, there wasn't much more that she wanted in the world than to have Paine lay with her for the night. She held her breath somewhat as she waited for an answer, her eyes quietly searching Paine's.

This wasn't quite what she expected today, Paine's thoughts falling into a confused jumble as she looked down to Rikku, eyes long adjusted to the dim lighting and able to easily see the woman below her. She watched as Rikku pulled her scarf away, eyes having followed it's motion and watched it pool on the floor. Looking back to the thief, she stayed stock still in her position half crouched, thoughts in her mind crying for dominance. A few more base, almost bestial thoughts crept into her head, shooed away by the slowly growing strength of reason, reminders to take care with what she was doing whispered in her head. Her old habits built up to protect herself grumbled in the background, calling her a fool for ignoring them and doing what her heart pleaded. Her heart spoke loudest, having gained confidence and strength the more she listened, and the butterflies fluttered in her chest again. A quirk of a smile touched her lips as she shook her head slightly. "How could I say no?" She murmured, her heart giving a little victorious cry as she was rewarded for her answer with a wide, happy smile from Rikku. Pulling back just slightly, she undid her shawl and let it drop over the scarf on the floor, her long boots soon making their own thudding sound on the floor as she knelt on the bed and leaned over Rikku slightly, both women pausing as the thought of exactly how they were going to lay hit both of their minds at once. Rikku moved a little toward the edge of the bed, Paine somewhat automatically moving over the 'Bhed to lay behind her, reaching out and wrapping one arm around Rikku, gently pulling her back closer to her, the blond's back resting against her chest. Rikku rested her hand over Paine's, threading her fingers with hers, holding Paine's hand to her breastbone as she took a slow, deep breath, closing her eyes and exhaling in a soft, happy sounding sigh.

"Thank you..." Rikku murmured, smiling as she felt Paine nosing lightly to the back of her neck again, the warrior moving herself about a little until Rikku spooned nicely against her form, Rikku thanking the fact she was shorter than Paine. She got a mumbled 'mmhmm' in response, Rikku giggling softly but letting it be at that. Paine seemed to busy herself with softly nosing to Rikku, lightly nudging the blond hair aside so she could better brush her lips against skin, it really nothing more than an idle, caring touch, she softly resting her forehead against the back of Rikku's head after a little, stilling her motions and laying quietly.

Silence once again fell on the two women as it did on the beach, but where words weren't needed there, one phrase was constantly repeating itself in Paine's mind. She pushed it back, wanting to leave it for the moment, this only seemed to make it pipe up louder, Paine finally sighing softly. "Rikku...?" She quietly asked, the blond having laid still through Paine's shifting around, her breathing slow and even, making Paine wonder if she was even awake.

It took a moment, but Rikku turned her head slightly, opening one eye. "Hmm?" She sounded a little like she was half asleep, but her open eye showed enough awareness. Paine tightened her hold on her a little, faintly biting the inside of her cheek for a moment.

"I know it probably goes without saying, but, I have to say it, or I'll never be able to live with myself if I don't and something happens..." Paine spoke, recalling the strange silence around the island's temple and quietly dreading the next days events, thoughts of the strange machina seen in the spheres lingering in her mind as well. Rikku frowned slightly at Paine's words, picking up a little on the worry in the other woman's tone, turning a little more to look to Paine's face, worry in her eyes as she tensed a bit. Paine mentally cursed herself for having to babble out her reason for speaking, she certainly didn't want to have worried Rikku. Offering her a smile that was genuine despite the mental scolding she gave herself, she cleared her throat lightly, her cheeks coloring in the dim light of the room. "...I love you, Rikku."

Relaxing as Paine continued and brushed away the worries that had abruptly bubbled up inside of her, Rikku felt the upwelling of emotion at finally hearing those three simple words, the rest of the world abruptly meaning virtually nothing as Rikku tightened her grip on Paine's hand to nearly crushing. A soft tremble ran down her back as she looked into Paine's eyes, the sound of what Paine had just said echoing in her mind. It seemed as if Paine were playing the thief for once, stealing words from Rikku, but after a long moment of looking into Paine's eyes, she smiled brightly, unable to prevent the happy laugh that escaped. "Oh Paine...E muja oui.." The words just wouldn't come out in anything but Al-bhed, but Paine understood, and when Rikku replied, she couldn't help but smile as she tightened her hold and leaned in to nuzzle her cheek lightly to Rikku's. Rikku made a soft, cheerful, almost animal like sound, Paine laughing very softly, her laughter a low and deep sound that was in complete opposite to Rikku's.

"Boy, that feels a little anti-climatic, doesn't it?" She quietly mumbled, the giddiness of relief at finally saying it making the warrior woman smile despite her best efforts, it seeming to have a similar effect on Rikku, Paine shaking her head a little and softly pressing her face to the cascade of blond in front of her.

Giggling, Rikku shrugged a little, letting her head fall back to the pillow as she looked across the room, her cheeks flaring with a blush. "We'll get to a climax later." She teased, squeaking when Paine lightly pinched her collarbone and mumbled a soft 'naughty' against her neck, Rikku just giggling again as she let her eyes drift closed. "It's...better than anything else I've ever heard in my entire life, Paine. It doesn't need a fanfare, my heart's jumping around enough as is...E muja oui, E muja oui, E muja oui..." She repeated a few times, her voice trailing off to silence as she held Paine's arm tightly around her, Paine intent on holding Rikku tightly to her.

"I love you too Rikku..." Paine replied, letting her words trail off with nothing more said, keeping the words that finally were spoken as the last things said to help usher them into sleep. Both women let out quiet, relaxed and happy sighs as they nestled together, the island night warm enough to negate the need for a sheet or blanket, any worries of the current times far from their thoughts, their world consisting of each other, and very little else. Paine smiled against Rikku's shoulder as she felt the blond drift off to sleep again, closing her eyes and shifting just slightly, she too soon fast asleep.

* * *

Author's Noteage: It ocured to me that it might not be so clear as to where in the 'game' we're at. I don't jive with the thought that everything takes place in a week or a few days, when I think of these worlds, things take -time-. In my timeline and head for how things go when I write in here and in 'Life In Luca' with the OC's, for example, Yuna's pilgrimage took nearly a year and a half to complete, to me, when I sort things out to make it fit better in a story sense. The character's age at the end of that is what they list in the guide books or what have you. Yuna being 17 at the end of her pilgrimage, 19 now. Rikku 15 back then, 17 now. (Yuna's the old lady, Paine's 18) Obviously, age isn't as much of a factor in some things in Spira as it might be here. Where Rikku rambles on about how Al-bhed are more or less accepting of same sex relationships, she categorizes it in how they knew that at any moment they could easily die thanks to Sin. Sin's presence in Spira made people grow up a lot faster than one would usually, on top of saving the world and all, so I really don't want to hear it about how they're 'just teenagers', because no, they're not aside of their actual age.

'Ruby and Emerald' starts at the end of chapter 2 after fighting Baralai and Dark Bahamut inside of Bevelle, and I went back and changed the first paragraph of chapter 1 to better reflect this, so if you've archived it or have it saved, you may wish to go and recollect chapter 1. We're lingering at the beginning of chapter 3 if you chose to go to Besaid as the 'hotspot'. I obviously didn't have fiends pour out of the temples all over the place after Dark Bahamut, I need some drama and build up thank you. ;) Things will continue to follow the main story line, though, no worries.

And I -really- want to babble about potions and how I think they and white magic work but that would make this -way- too long. I'll get to explaining it in the next chapter of 'Life In Luca' if you really want to know, go look there. Uh, when I put it up. Hee.

Al-bhed translation:  
'meddma dreav' 'little thief'  
'E muja oui' 'I love you'


End file.
